Smithsonian Institution leadership appears willing to work with President Donald Trump’s team to ensure that the museum’s visitors see a “balanced” presentation of U.S. history, Lindsey Halligan, special assistant to the president, told Newsmax on Friday.
Halligan appeared on “National Report” a day after she and other administration officials met with Smithsonian executives to discuss implementing Trump’s goal of “more positivity, more patriotism” with the exhibits after years under former President Joe Biden.
“We sent a letter to leadership at the Smithsonian just requesting a review of all of the exhibits that are currently shown to the American public to ensure that they’re not pushing a political or ideological narrative,” Halligan told co-hosts Shaun Kraisman and Emma Rechenberg.
“And we met with the leadership at the Smithsonian yesterday, and it was really productive and helpful. And I think that we’re going to be working together, and it’s going to be very collaborative, and it’s going to be part of making D.C. beautiful.”
Halligan said Trump’s team is focused on “giving a balanced portrayal of American history and giving the full context.” That hasn’t been the case in recent years, especially under the Biden administration.
“‘The Shape of Power’ exhibit has placards, it’s in the National Portrait Gallery, and it has placards that insinuate that sculpture is inherently racist,” Halligan said. “It calls it race, not a biological fact, but a human invention. And it asks visitors, ‘How does sculpture give rise to racist ideas?’
“I think questions like that in the National Portrait Gallery are not what parents take their kids to the Smithsonian for. You take your kids and you go yourself to these museums to learn something. And the Smithsonian Institution was created to be a trust instrumentality, and it has just strayed so far from that original purpose. And I think leadership at the Smithsonian is willing to work with us.”
Halligan doubled down on remarks that the work done by the administration officials and the Smithsonian leadership will be “collaborative.”
“I’m really excited to see what happens in the next few months,” she said. “I know the leadership at the Smithsonian will agree to open the Smithsonian Castle, which is one of the oldest buildings in D.C., and it’s a beautiful building.
“It’s on the National Mall; I think it was built in 1855. And so that will be open hopefully come July, which is America’s 250th birthday.”
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