In the wake of Trump’s Truth Social rant earlier this week, in which he accused the Smithsonian of focusing too much on “how bad slavery was,” the White House released a list targeting specific exhibitions and artworks at the institution as it vows to purge it of “divisive narratives.”
The 26-point bulleted memo titled “President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian,” published today, August 21, comes days after the Trump administration demanded that the Smithsonian hand over information about curatorial processes, exhibitions, and other programs so that government officials can make “content corrections.”
In today’s memo, the administration took particular aim at programs that recognized LGBTQ+ individuals, humanized migrants, and referenced political figures who have strayed from conservative platforms, including former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, abolitionist Angela Davis, and socialist 2024 presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz.
Also on the list is Amy Sherald’s 2024 painting “Trans Forming Liberty,” which was slated to be included in a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). Sherald withdrew the show entirely last month, citing concerns that the museum was planning to censor the work.
Other targeted artworks in the list reference immigration in the United States, such as Rigoberto A. González’s 2020 painting “Refugees Crossing the Border Wall into South Texas,” which features a man and a woman climbing a ladder holding a baby and accompanied by a child. González was a finalist in the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.
In an interview with Hyperallergic, González compared the inclusion of his painting on Trump’s list to the Nazi campaign against “degenerate art.”
“Political parties and politicians know that art is very powerful, so they always try to use it as propaganda,” González said. He emphasized that at the bottom of the painting, he included a crumpled newspaper with the headline “Trump Impeached.” The figures in the work, he added, are references to the Holy Family.
“It depicts immigration, but also the dangers that the immigrants face once they get here, and that’s what those objects at the bottom of the painting kind of represent: anti-immigrant sentiment,” González continued. The artist said he thoroughly researches his paintings and speaks to immigrants in Texas to understand their experiences.
The museum kept the painting for two years as part of the 2022 Outwin competition for a group tour at museums across the country, but it is not currently displayed at the NPG, according to González.
The White House memo also accuses the Smithsonian Institution of excluding the “wealthy, pale, and male,” linking a New York Times report with the phrase in its headline. The Smithsonian, however, has not used the phrase.
Many of the artworks and shows on the White House’s list were featured in an August 15 article published in the conservative publication the Federalist.
In the last few months, Trump has waged a relentless campaign to instill so-called “American exceptionalism” across the Smithsonian’s research centers and 21 museums, threatening to erase critical race theory, LGBTQ+ histories, and other narratives that he deems “unpatriotic.”
The president has accused the Smithsonian and museums in the United States in general of being a last-standing pillar of the so-called liberal “woke,” a term with roots in Black culture and social justice movements that conservatives have co-opted as a derogatory term for progressive values.
The White House’s list today leads with a 2020 infographic that the National Museum of African American History and Culture added to its website immediately after the killing of George Floyd. Titled “aspects and assumptions about white culture,” the graphic included descriptions about “white dominant” family structures, religion, and attitudes. The museum apologized for the infographic and removed it from its site after backlash from conservatives, including Ben Shapiro and Donald Trump Jr.
Trump’s hit list also includes National Museum of American History (NMAH) content discussing LGBTQ+ history; a National Museum of African Art show exploring the Afrofuturist legend of Drexciya; and animated graphics of Latinos with disabilities created by the National Museum of the American Latino.
A 2022 series of stop-motion portraits of Anthony Fauci by Outwin winner Hugo Crosthwaite, commissioned by the NPG, also made the list, as did the NMAH’s American Democracy exhibition, which the statement accuses of favoring “leftist” causes like promoting trans athletes competing in the category of their gender identity.
Hyperallergic has reached out to the Smithsonian for comment.
