School field trips trail out of the five-level African American Museum on April 10, 2025. Seven school groups were seen touring in a brief span that Thursday afternoon, reflecting the popularity of the museum. (Photo by Emma Paterson/Cronkite News)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s order to scrub anything “divisive” from the Smithsonian to shield Americans from “woke” propaganda has – at least temporarily – had the opposite effect.
Visitors are flocking to see certain exhibits before they’re taken down.
“We’ve heard about this museum for years but after hearing what Trump has said we made sure to come while we’re here,” said Janine Drake, on vacation from San Diego, after touring the National Museum of African American History and Culture with her mother, Eva.
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. The nation’s capital is home to 17 of its 21 museums, plus the National Zoo, one of the city’s most popular attractions.
In a March 27 executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” Trump asserted that the museums showcase anti-American propaganda and depict America’s past as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn,” the order says. “Not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.”
Entrance of the National African American History and Culture Museum during peak bloom for Washington D.C.’s famous cherry blossom trees. Photo taken on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Emma Paterson/Cronkite News)
The president’s condemnation doesn’t sit well with tourists interviewed at the museum dedicated to the history of Black Americans.
“What does he mean by divisive?” said Jerri Doty from Hampton, Virginia, after touring the museum. “Does he mean anything honest, anything that does not suit him?”
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visitors to the Washington facilities routinely topped 25 million people each year. The 2024 total was 16.5 million. Congress created the African American museum in 2003, and when it opened in 2016, it instantly became the second most-popular Smithsonian after the National Air and Space Museum.
A visit to the African American museum starts on the lowest of five levels, with rooms designed to feel like a cramped slave boat crossing the Atlantic. There’s a real cabin that housed enslaved people on a plantation. Visitors can step inside and imagine the lives of people forced to live there.
A higher floor is dedicated to Black artists in music, fashion, theater, movies and more. Exhibits explore the role of Black soldiers during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the world wars; lynchings; and the fight for civil rights.
On a typical day, every level is swarmed with children on field trips, families on vacations and others wanting to learn and reflect.
“Honestly it doesn’t matter what Trump says,” Drake said. “The fact is, it is very inclusive. There are so many races and stories. Even the welcome sign is in multiple languages. There’s no hatred, it’s just history.”
Roxanne Richards, a therapist from New York City, brought her 6-year-old daughter.
Over 80 sculptures dating to 1792 are held in an exhibit called The Shape of Power, which showcases art depicting a range of races and ethnicities. Photo taken on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Emma Paterson/Cronkite News)
“Everything that is in there is part of history,” she said. “This is our history – American history. There is nothing divisive about it. If anything, there’s more that could be added, not removed.”
That’s not how the president characterizes it.
His executive order asserts that some exhibits and programs “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.”
The order doesn’t just target the African American museum.
It also calls out an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum called “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture.” That exhibit is unacceptable, the order says, because it promotes the idea that race is a social construct rather than a “biological reality.”
That refers to a statement on a small plaque that visitors could easily walk past without noticing.
The exhibit includes more than 80 sculptures, showcasing different cultures within America.
Including everything from Black identity to Puerto Rican culture to white cowboys, the exhibit showcases the intersection of different races and cultures.
Trump also criticized a museum that won’t open for at least five years: the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, which is under construction.
Trump’s order says the museum will be “celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports.”
Museum officials have been clear about their intention to include transgender women in exhibits.
Entrance to the Shape of Power Exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, showcasing work from Roberto Lugo’s sculpture DNA Study Revisited. Photo taken on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Emma Paterson/Cronkite News)
“This is about all American women,” the interim director, Lisa Sasaki, told The 19th in an interview two years ago. “What we are not wanting to do here is create some artificial definition of what it means to be a woman, but rather to explore the many, many different aspects of that.”
Trump ordered the museum to “celebrate the achievements of women” and “not recognize men as women in any respect.” The order specifically bans any celebration of “men in women’s sports.”
Doty, one of the visitors to the museum focused on Black history, rejected Trump’s critique of museums that depict mistreatment of Native Americans and other dark episodes in America’s past.
“I don’t know what would be left if it was up to Trump,” she said. “Since he’s a racist, sexist, homophobe, the list goes on.”
The effects of Trump’s order have not yet taken hold.
The Smithsonian is governed by a Board of Regents that includes the vice president, the chief justice of the United State, three senators, three U.S. House members and nine citizen members.
Congress provided more than $1 billion to the Smithsonian in the 2024 fiscal year, which accounts for about two-thirds of its budget.
Trump’s order directs Vice President JD Vance to implement his vision and to work with Republican congressional leaders to identify potential regents who would be “committed to advancing the policy of this order.”