'One phrase in particular' makes Trump's Smithsonian order 'deeply disturbing': analysis

29 March

On Thursday, March 27, President Donald Trump issued yet another executive order — this time, one aimed at the Smithsonian Institute. Trump called for expressions of "improper ideologies" or to be removed from Smithsonian's museums and information centers, and for the removal of displays that "promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy,"

Journalist Lauren Wolfe was quick to respond on X, formerly Twitter, and posted, "This is unabashed fascism."

Wolfe isn't the only journalist who is speaking out.

In a column published on March 29, the Daily Beast's David Rothkopf lays out some reasons why he finds Trump's use of the words "improper ideology" so troubling.

"What damage could such an exercise do?" Rothkopf argues. "After all, the Smithsonian is not under the control of the president! He has no authority to alter its content or behavior in any way. And if he wants to send J.D. Vance to pick a fight with a panda well, that's probably less damage than he might do participating in high-level national security chats or during recon for an invasion of Greenland. But the order contained several elements that, are in fact, deeply disturbing. One, of course, is that it is racist to its core — a manifestation of white supremacists' longstanding grievances with depictions of American history that actually tell the truth about our bloody and cruel past."

The Daily Beast columnist continues, "And it contains one phrase in particular that made my blood run cold, because of what it plainly says about what Trump and his aides are trying to engineer here in America: Down deep, in the section dubiously titled 'Saving Our Smithsonian,' is the requirement that the VP and other aides work with the people who run our national museums to 'remove improper ideology from such properties.'"

Rothkopf stresses that when a president speaks of "improper ideologies," it is flat-out thought policing.

"Improper ideologies? Those alone are two words that signal the end of America as we know it," Rothkopf warns. "There are not supposed to be 'improper ideologies' in these United States, a country with freedom of expression woven into the fabric of its founding documents."

David Rothkopf's full Daily Beast column is available at this link (subscription required).

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