A new bill would outlaw the Smithsonian Institution from peddling wokeness and “divisive narratives,” codifying an executive order issued by President Trump back in March, its author told The Post Tuesday.
“It’s time to stop letting activists rewrite our past,” said Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who introduced the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History Act.”
“This bill puts President Trump’s order into law to ensure our national museums celebrate our values, our heroes, and what makes America great.”
Since the US was rocked by race riots in the spring and summer of 2020, the Smithsonian’s taxpayer-funded museums have been criticized by Republicans and independents for embracing far-left talking points and interpretations.
In one egregious example, the National Museum of African American History and Culture published a graphic claiming that “objective, rational, linear thinking,” “quantitative emphasis” and the attutide of “hard work before play” were “white” qualities.
The museum later apologized for the incendiary display.
In 2019, new Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch told Smithsonian Magazine: “I want the Smithsonian to legitimize important issues, whether it’s 1619 or climate change,” referring to the New York Times’ hotly debated 1619 Project about the role of slavery in shaping America.
“We help people think about what’s important, what they should debate, what they should embrace,” added Bunch, who is still in his job as the head of the Smithsonian. “Everybody that thought about the 1619 Project, whether they liked it or disagreed with it, saw that the Smithsonian had fingerprints on it. And that, to me, was a great victory.”
In 2023, Hispanic Republican lawmakers attacked the American Latino Museum’s “iPresente!” exhibit, saying it was overly focused on European colonialism and the US government’s support of right-wing dictators in Latin America — while avoiding criticism of left-wing regimes such as Cuba’s Castro brothers.
“It’s really kind of like a racist portrayal of Hispanics,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) of the exhibit at the time. “And also just trying to portray the United States as evil in every way.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration ripped into the National Museum of American History’s Entertainment Nation exhibit that framed “Star Wars” as a national inspiration in the aftermath of America’s “loss in Vietnam and revelations about Richard Nixon’s dirty-tricks presidency.”
A display for “Lone Ranger” said “The White title character’s relationship with Tonto resembled how the U.S. government imagined itself the world’s Lone Ranger.”
The White House has also raised concerns about the American Art Museum’s “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” exhibit, which is intended to represent how”[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.”
Banks himself singled out recent efforts by the American Women’s History Museum to spotlight transgender female athletes, and his bill stipulates the Institution can’t “recognize men as women in any respect.”
The bill further prohibits future Smithsonian projects that “degrade shared American values” and pushes for the reinstatement of National Park Service-backed memorials, statues and monuments that were taken down or altered because of ideological reasons.
Vice President JD Vance, who is on the board, is tasked with helping to enforce that policy.
The Smithsonian did not respond to a Post request for comment.
