Trump Administration Reviews Smithsonian on Partisan Content
The Trump administration ordered the Smithsonian to align the exhibit with American exceptionalism.
- The Trump administration reviews eight Smithsonian museums, including the National Portrait Gallery, and removes what is called awakened, divisive material.
- The White House opposed several past and present exhibits, including those not currently on display.
- The museum’s mission is to tell American stories by portraying the people who shaped its history and culture.
The National Portrait Gallery is one of the first Smithsonian Museum Presidential Museums by President Donald Trump, and is reviewing it as part of an effort to eliminate the “attractiveness” in the country’s cultural institutions.
The White House mentioned the museum several times in its list of Smithsonian objections published in August. The items and exhibits will be reviewed to “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove any divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in shared cultural institutions.”
USA Today, along with four others, visited the museum, assessed the administration’s concerns and gained the visitors’ perspective.
Here’s what you need to know about the National Portrait Gallery:
The origin of the museum
Congress passed laws in 1962 to establish the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Smithsonian Association.
The law calls for it to function as a free public museum for exhibitions and research of portraits and statues depicting the people of America and the men and women who have made great contributions to the history, development and culture of the artists who created such portraits and statues.
According to the museum, there is a complete collection of presidential portraits. He began commissioning such portraits in the 1990s, beginning with former President George H.W.
The building, which also shares the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, is a national historic landmark dating back to 1836, when it was built for the US Patent Office.
What I visited
The White House list denounced the performance art series held in 2015 and 2016. This is an oil painting showing refugees that have not been exhibited across the US border since 2023. This is an animation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, currently not on display, an animation of the exhibit set to open in September, including “a painting depicting a transgender statue in Rivert.”
The White House opposed the depiction of the Benjamin Franklin Museum at the National Museum of American History. Benjamin Franklin is said to be “focused solely on slavery,” but there is no such mention in Franklin’s paintings in the National Portrait Gallery. It describes his “life of accomplishment” and says that he “still stands out very much today.”
The Portrait Museum has a gallery that depicts everything from Old Hollywood to 17.th– Indigenous Americans of the century. Its mission is to “tell the American story by portraying people who shape the history, development and culture of the country.”
Certainly, within the museum’s collection there are portraits of some of the most iconic figures in American history. This is an unfinished portrait of George Washington that served as the basis for the present-day image of Abraham Lincoln, which the museum describes as “one of the most important and inspiring photographs of American history.”
“The Shape of Power: The Story of Race and American Sculpture” is an exhibition that opens in November 2024 and is scheduled to close in September, and visitors will say, “find different ways artists can use sculpture to tell a more fulfilling story about how race and racism shape the way we understand ourselves, our communities, and the United States.”
One of the sculptures, Nareward’s “swings” shows the tires of a car with shoes hanging from the rope. According to the description, the work refers to “the brutal history of lynching in the United States,” and states that the shoes represent “the countless lives lost to racial violence in the past and today.”
The exhibition also states that “American sculpture has become a medium for expressing racist hierarchies,” and the work highlights the sculpture’s “deep connection with white hegemony and idealized white female virtue concepts.”
In the “American President” exhibition, the museum also points out that no appointed portrait of Trump’s President Joe Biden has been released.
Now, Matt McClain’s 2017 photo shows Trump folded up and wearing a red tie, looking directly at the visitors. At certain angles, the dark background of the photo allows viewers to see a reflection of the portrait of former President Barack Obama, depicting him surrounded by greenery and flowers, representing Chicago and Hawaii.
Biden is shown in a 2023 photo taken at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco, where he looks away from the camera as he stands behind the microphone.
What the visitors said
Museum visitors said they did not feel the museum was politically biased.
Ian Jane, 29, thanked the museum and said he didn’t think any of the exhibits were “awakening.”
Jane, a former Georgetown student currently visiting from Oklahoma, said he hopes the Smithsonian fights to control the exhibit.
“A lot of American culture is about open expression,” he said.
Maya Ribault, 50, works near the National Portrait Gallery. She is a frequent guest and considers herself a bit of a superfan.
She said the museum does an incredible job of expressing American nuances and diversity.
“If only I could see the curators,” she said, “I would give them a big hug.”
Brieanna Frank is the first amendment reporter for USA Today.
Reports on the First Amendment issue for USA Today are funded through collaborations between the Freedom Forum and Journalism’s fundraising partners. Funders do not provide editor input.
