Trump Demands Smithsonian Documents Ahead of 250th Anniversary

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Equality
Trump Demands Smithsonian Documents Ahead of 250th Anniversary


The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History in Washington.Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

By Gregory Korte
December 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM EST

The White House is raising the pressure on the Smithsonian Institution to turn over extensive internal records as part of a broader effort to assert control over how US history is presented — and threatening to withhold congressionally authorized funding if it doesn’t comply by Jan. 13.

“We wish to be assured that none of the leadership of the Smithsonian museums is confused about the fact that the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world,” according to a Thursday letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. “The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history."

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Art
White House threatens Smithsonian funds in sweeping content review

“American people will have no patience” for any museum that is “uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history,” read a letter from Trump aides.

Updated
December 20, 2025 at 7:13 p.m. EST yesterday at 7:13 p.m.


Visitors tour the Smithsonian’s “America’s Presidents” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in June. At left is a portrait of President Donald Trump, taken by Washington Post photographer Matt McClain. (Valerie Plesch/For The Washington Post)

By Kelsey Ables

The Trump administration escalated pressure on the Smithsonian this week, threatening to withhold federal funds if it does not submit extensive documentation for a sweeping content review. President Donald Trump earlier this year set out to purge what he called “improper ideology” from the nation’s most prestigious museum system, efforts that are expected to intensify as his administration tries to shape the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations next year.

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America 250
White House pressures Smithsonian for internal records, warns funding could be withheld: report

Trump administration sets deadline for museum records ahead of America 250, warns of budget consequences

By Jasmine Baehr Fox News
Published December 19, 2025 7:46pm EST

The White House is escalating pressure on the Smithsonian Institution, demanding extensive internal records and warning that congressionally authorized funding could be withheld if the museum system does not comply by a mid-January deadline, according to a report by Bloomberg.

In a letter sent Thursday to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said the administration wants assurances that Smithsonian leadership is prepared to present American history in a positive light as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026.

"We wish to be assured that none of the leadership of the Smithsonian museums is confused about the fact that the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world," the letter said, according to Bloomberg.

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[UpInArms]

1. Lessons from Stalin?

FROM BLURRING IMPERFECTIONS TO FALSIFYING REALITY: HOW STALIN MADE THE TRUTH DISAPPEAR THROUGH ‘PHOTOSHOP’

In reality, the photograph is heavily reworked. According to the Met Museum, “retouchers smoothed Stalin’s pockmarked complexion, lengthened his shriveled left arm, and increased his stature so that Lenin seems to recede benignly… in a letter dictated around the time the picture was taken, Lenin described Stalin as intolerably rude and capricious and recommended that he be removed from his position as the Communist Party’s secretary general.”

During the 1930s the retouching went from the somewhat innocent act of blurring facial imperfections to the pernicious practice of falsifying reality.

In the later years of Stalin’s tenure, those who ran afoul of the Soviet leader were simply erased.

Millions of innocent people perished during Stalin’s “Great Purge,” including many within his inner circle. Those men were not only killed but expunged from the Soviet photographic record. Leaders like Leon Trotsky and Lev Borisovich Kamenev were airbrushed out of pictures throughout Stalin’s reign.

[area51]

2. "The American people will have no patience for any museum ...."

Don't presume to speak for the American people, Russian stooge #PEDOnald.

[LymphocyteLover]

3. what a grotesque statement