Trump escalates attacks against Smithsonian museums, says there's too much focus on 'how bad slavery was'
Source: CNN Politics
Updated Aug 19, 2025, 3:57 PM ET
PUBLISHED Aug 19, 2025, 3:50 PM ET
President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against museums and alleged “WOKE” exhibits on Tuesday, saying “everything” is centered on highlighting negative aspects of American history, including “how bad slavery was.” “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” he added.
Trump’s comments come days after the White House announced an unprecedented, sweeping review of the Smithsonian Institution, which runs the nation’s major public museums. The initiative, a trio of top Trump aides wrote in a letter to Smithsonian Institution secretary Lonnie Bunch III last week, “aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
The letter said the review would focus on public-facing content, the curatorial process to understand how work is selected for exhibits, current and future exhibition planning, the use of existing materials and collections and guidelines for narrative standards.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/19/politics/trump-slavery-museum-smithsonian
Waste. Fraud. Abuse.
But remember that the "only" thing that we are supposed to focus on is "Price of eggs", "Kitchen table issues", "Working class". "Racism" is supposedly "a distraction".
= new reply since forum marked as read
Stupid motherfucking racist piece of shit.
It was all that long ago that I felt like this country was making real progress, moving from segregated bathrooms etc. to electing a black President. Damn was I wrong.
They're going to debase every corner of the Fedrul Gubmint.
(which we pick up here in Philly)
He displaced Lynn Samuel who originally had that slot and she whined about being kicked out of her studio for him. 
She later became a nasty piece of work herself.
Used to listen to the others on that WABC lineup including Curtis Sliwa in the morning (with Ron Kuby and then later as solo and then with is wife Lisa), along with the one and only "original" and "Get off my damn phone" master - Bob Grant (including when he bopped around between WABC and WOR as each station fired him 
).
I did enjoy listening to " (John) Batchelor and (Paul) Alexander" (who were on at 9 pm on WABC). They were especially great information sources (including their guests) during the First Gulf War.
(where Curtis - and I can't believe he is running for mayor... again had the 6 am - 10 am slot).
They rejiggered the schedule to create Limpball's "noon - 3 pm" slot (then I think Bob Grant had the "drive time" afternoon slot). I know Hannity used to be on in the afternoons and would sometimes bring Alan Colmes on - first as a fill-in and then with a show (possibly once Bob Grant was booted from the station the first time ).
Samuels was moved to a different studio "down the hall" (IIRC she said) and later ended up becoming a birther... so whatever happened must have happened around the time when Obama was running for office for the first time. 
I listened to her because she was one of the few "liberals" on the station but then seemed to snap and go downhill.
Making America great again means going back to a time where racial discrimination and oppression was okay. Now trump wants to make America great again by bringing back slavery. trump wants to make America hate again
Link to tweet
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-smithsonian-portray-americas-brightness-bad-slavery/story
"The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been -- Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future," Trump wrote on his social media platform.
"We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made," Trump added. "This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the 'HOTTEST' Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums."
The Smithsonian declined to comment.
The most unique (and intentional) thing that was done with the National Museum of African American History and Culture is that the history is told, literally "starting from the bottom" for the earliest historical period (in the "underground' basement exhibits), and "time" works its way up through higher levels until the "current" time is on the topmost floor of the museum.
The "Middle Passage" and slavery story exists down on the lowest level and things move up levels through the country's founding, it's Civil War and Emancipation, and continues describing the series of Civil Rights movements and later wars, culminating in the glory of finally "making it", with a celebration of the best of the culture on the topmost floors (musical, art, theater, sports, etc). There are also areas for interactive exhibits and space for teaching, with food/retail tourist items on the street level floor/entrance.
I am a Charter member for the NMAAHC and finally got chance to go down there in the fall of 2018 during his 2nd year in office for the first term (the museum officially opened in the fall of 2016). I know they are continually rotating things in and out of the museum as individuals and groups donate items, but the museum sections are also laid out in themes and attempt to set a "mood", with the windowless "darkness" of the basement contrasting with the upper floors surrounded with all glass windows around the entirety of each upper level, bringing in the "light".
concentration camps, focus too much on the bad things."
In the camps, he continued, prisoners learned new skills, utilized their existing skills, such as sewing uniforms or playing musical instruments,
picked up foreign language from others.....
of course.
I finally got chance to listen to the whole thing earlier this morning and it was fascinating to hear these history experts doing their thing. They are the types that would appear on CSPAN panels (nowadays shown on CSPAN3 if Congress is in session).
It's always amazing to hear history buffs able to digest what is gleamed from another era's oratory and distill it down to modern language to illicit the main idea from it (which is the type of thing that was done with the musical "Hamilton" ). 
There is NO "bottom of the barrel" from him or his supporters.
The National African-American History Museum isn't even "all about slavery". The first part certainly is and it is very informative and well-laid out. Of all the museums we went, it was the ONLY one where my husband cried. It was in the Emmet Till area, where there was a coffin and inside was a picture of what he looked like before burial. I was too short to see inside. My husband was shocked and cried, and another person swayed and almost passed out. We were there for almost three hours and that was moving at slightly faster than normal pace because of time.
These people are...well...as profane as I can be...I can't even come up with something (in)appropriate enough!
