Over the summer, once again Donald Trump set the tone for cultural debate. In mid-August – a time when most people's minds are elsewhere – the president of the United States called for an audit of the country's museums, which he sees as the last stronghold of "woke." He accused these temples of art of giving too much space to minorities and focusing only on America's negative and conflictual aspects, such as slavery. His excesses mask a very real debate that has been roiling the art world: What is the purpose of a museum? How activist and politicized can it be?
Since his inauguration on January 20, Trump has primarily targeted the twenty or so museums in Washington grouped under the Smithsonian label. He ordered his teams to review not only their artworks but also the language associated with them – gallery texts, labels, catalogs, websites, and curators' statements – to identify anything he deemed inconsistent with "American ideals." He is working toward a clear goal: On July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, museums must tell a glorious national story.
Trump doubled down on August 21, and this time took an unprecedented step. The White House provided about 20 examples of artworks from Smithsonian museums that it considered problematic. Upon review, these artworks featured no sex, no attacks on religion, no violence or cruelty. Instead, they focused on immigration, minorities – including LGBTQ+ people, Black Americans, and Latinos – slavery, women, and transgender individuals. For example, a 3-meter-tall papier-mâché Statue of Liberty with brown skin, holding a tomato in place of a torch, symbolized the hard labor of Latino farm workers – a way for artist Kat Rodriguez to state that, "I, too, am America."
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