Earlier this year, on March 14, the Trump administration issued an executive order that eliminated over $100 million in federal funding and grants that had been vital to the operation and growth of cultural heritage institutions across the country. The executive order, which targeted agencies that “the President…determined are unnecessary,” eliminated, among others, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS), an independent federal agency that has worked to financially support libraries, archives and museums across the country since 1998. In addition, the Trump administration has proposed a 2026 budget that includes significant cuts for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), agencies that have also historically provided funding for cultural heritage institutions.
From the beginning of his first term as president in 2017, the Trump administration has attempted to eliminate these agencies in budget proposals, showing an administrative undervaluation of cultural heritage institutions like museums, libraries and archives that work to preserve and make accessible the artifacts and texts that form our history. A lack of federal support for cultural heritage and the humanities demonstrates a deprioritization of the value of historical preservation, something that is only further exemplified by the Trump administration’s attempts to censor prominent museums whose exhibits and displays contradict its narrative of United States history.
The Trump administration, in an executive order published on March 27, claimed that museums like the Smithsonian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture were taking part in a “revisionist movement” that “seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” The executive order alleges that discussing historical issues like racism, enslavement, discrimination and other forms of oppression is part of a “corrosive ideology” that works to “distort” and “rewrite” the history of the United States. The executive order suggests that acknowledging the negative aspects of United States history is an ideological project that “fosters a sense of national shame” and misrepresents the United States’ “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness.”
Instead, the administration suggests that museums should adopt a more patriotic approach to historical education and preservation, becoming “solemn and uplifting public monuments” and that institutions like the Smithsonian must be restored as symbols of “inspiration and American greatness.” The executive order accuses cultural heritage institutions of “ideological indoctrination” and states that instead, museums should be places where “individuals go to learn.”
The administration’s defunding of agencies like IMLS, which attempts to censor history and control what information is presented at cultural heritage institutions, is something that greatly concerns me both as a citizen and someone with a deeply instilled interest in the museum studies field. The various executive orders by the Trump administration exhibit an understanding of historical education that, although claiming to be an objective, non-ideological and factual understanding of American history, views history as something that should be engaged with only to reaffirm ideals about American supremacy and perfection. Anything that doesn’t align with this narrative is seen as being an unjustifiably pessimistic view of history or downright un-American. What this viewpoint neglects, however, is that history isn’t always positive, “uplifting” or “inspiring.”
As the daughter of a history teacher, I spent many family vacations visiting museums, historical sites and other cultural heritage institutions that helped me to develop an appreciation for United States history and historical preservation. From local museums, living history villages and presidential homes, I spent a lot of time in places that surrounded me with history. At the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois, I learned both about the achievements of Lincoln’s presidency and the horrors of American enslavement. At the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, I learned both about the industrial achievements of the United States auto industry and the violence and inequality of Jim Crow and segregation. When I visited Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia, I learned about Jefferson’s successful political career and his technological inventiveness, but also toured Mulberry Row, where historically, Jefferson housed the 600 individuals that he enslaved over his lifetime. All of these things can be simultaneously true, and all of these things are history.
History in general, and American history in particular, is often gruesome, horrifying and at times discouraging. The Trump administration’s March 27 executive order is right about one thing: museums should be places where people go to learn about history. What the administration gets wrong, though, is that learning about history isn’t always uplifting and doesn’t always instill “pride in the hearts of all Americans.” True historical education and preservation do not just regurgitate idealistic views of American history that ignore the horrors and injustices of the past. True historical education makes space for both the achievements and failures, the sympathies and cruelties that make up our country’s history.
In poet and activist Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb,” which she read at the 2021 presidential inauguration, Gorman wrote, “...being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into, and how we repair it.” American history is fraught with inhumanity, oppression and failure, but our hope and pride should not come from ignoring this, but rather from acknowledging this, and realizing the historically-demonstrated truth that we have the ability and opportunity to change the American future.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.