What do you get when you combine Mickey Mouse and a 1923 circus poster with the Smithsonian? Racism and imperialism (no kidding). Needless to say, the once-prized institution is back in the hot seat, facing criticism from the White House over the National Museum of American History’s Entertainment Nation exhibit, which views iconic characters through a kaleidoscope of radical ideologies, criticizing America while morphing legendary figures into symbols of racism. In March, the president signed an executive order promising to restore “truth and sanity to American history,” and “Saving Our Smithsonian” is at the forefront of that mission. But he might be in over his head.
Smithsonian Showdown: Sanity vs Spin
The Entertainment Nation exhibit “reframes iconic American characters through a critical, politically-charged lens,” said Fox News. For instance, a display of The Lone Ranger tells viewers, “The White title character’s relationship with Tonto resembled how the U.S. government imagined itself the world’s Lone Ranger.”
A display for Steamboat Willie, the 1928 cartoon debuting Mickey Mouse, claimed the show came “amidst a rising anxiety felt by many that modern living and city life were eroding family and community ties and loosening moral codes.” Additionally, “the new character’s outsized facial features, white gloves, and trickster temperament were vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy.”
These descriptions read like hackneyed book reviews of 19th-century novels. In such cases, a writer often interjects personal opinions and unfounded assertions, lambasting every action unaligned with today’s progressive beliefs and standards.
One more: “Under the big top,” says a placard beside a 1923 circus poster, “circuses expressed the colonial impulse to claim dominion over the world.” It’s tempting to say, “You can’t make this stuff up,” but somebody did.
White House Staff Secretary Lindsey Halligan recently sent an email to Fox News in which she “blasted content currently on display at the National Museum of American History’s Entertainment Nation exhibit.”
“The Smithsonian Institution should present history in a way that is accurate, balanced, and consistent with the values that make the United States of America exceptional,” said Halligan. “American taxpayers should not be funding institutions that undermine our country or promote one-sided, divisive political narratives.” Yet that’s exactly what has been and is happening.
In fiscal year 2024, the Smithsonian received more than a billion dollars in federal appropriations. It also acquires a lot of cash from founding donors such as Oprah Winfrey, who has given more than $20 million to the institution. Others include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Walmart, Target, the Rockefeller Foundation, Walt Disney, and the Lilly Endowment, Incorporated. The full list is inundated with left-leaning corporations, foundations, and companies. So the Smithsonian will likely struggle to please the White House while appeasing the whims of donors because federal funding is crucial to its survival.
Left-Wing Fantasies
The Smithsonian has long been a purveyor of progressive ideologies. Liberty Nation News has documented some of these efforts, such as when the Futures exhibit promoted a “one-world government.” In 2020, the National Museum of African American History and Culture had displayed but quietly removed a racial test that examined “aspects and assumptions of whiteness and white culture.” More recently, there was the Bias Inside Us, a traveling exhibit to “help people understand and counter their implicit biases.”
It’s not surprising that an institution captured by the left, a group dedicated to allowing human beings to define their identities at whim, believes history can be reshaped to fit contemporary viewpoints steeped in activist jargon. The problem for the Smithsonian is, just like identities, it must induce others to accept its revisionist narratives – otherwise, they’re just fantasies.
The Trump administration is “working with leadership at the Smithsonian to audit and review all content at the museums,” Halligan told Fox News. “Framing American culture as inherently violent, imperialist, or racist does not reflect the greatness of our nation or the millions of Americans who have contributed to its progress.”
Vice President JD Vance, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, and Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida are now part of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, so the administration is working from the inside to rid the institution of far-left narratives posing as history.
It’s a noble goal, but reforming a vast federal institution in just four years almost seems like a Sisyphean task. The president’s reach only goes so far when it comes to what society sees and hears. Plus, he is not only up against the Smithsonian – he is facing a movement embedded in our culture, one that seems to thrive on tearing things down. It has an ostensible vendetta against history, too, as seen during the Summer of Floyd when statues were vandalized and toppled. What the Trump administration is doing, though, could be a catalyst, an inspiration for people to speak up, act, and return the nation’s prized institutions to a positive vision of American values.
