President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at restoring “truth and sanity” in American history by rooting out DEI initiatives at the Smithsonian, protecting and restoring national monuments, and providing a counter to the promotion of left-wing ideology in public schools.
“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light,” the president wrote in the order titled, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
“Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.”
Trump then listed a number of examples that took place under the Biden Administration, which piggy-backed off the destructive Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. During peak BLM hysteria, left-wing vandals toppled statues of the founding fathers and confederate generals in blue cities across the nation. In Delaware, Democrat leaders removed a statue of Caesar Rodney, who signed the Declaration of Independence, while New York City leaders removed a bust of Thomas Jefferson that had stood in City Hall for more than a century.
New York City also removed an iconic statue of Theodore Roosevelt that had stood outside the Museum of Natural History.
Trump also pointed to a number of DEI initiatives that were embedded within historical sites and monuments, including Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where taxpayer-funded trainings were conducted by an organization that advocates dismantling “Western foundations” and “interrogating institutional racism” and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist.
The president also addressed DEI initiatives that have infected the Smithsonian Institution in recent years. “This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum today features ‘The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,’ an exhibit representing that “[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.’” The exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating ‘Race is a human invention,’” Trump wrote.
He also took note of an infamous exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which brands “hard work,” the nuclear family, being on time and individualism as problematic examples of “white culture.”
Trump’s order directs Vice President Vance to work on eliminating “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from Smithsonian museums, research centers, as well as the National Zoo.
The Executive Order also directs the Secretary of the Interior to restore national parks, monuments, and statues that have been “improperly removed or changed” by left-wing extremists and vandals. Under the Executive Order, agencies must complete restorations and improvements to Independence Hall before the nation’s 250th anniversary in July 2026.