The Smithsonian Museum of American History has suffered a complete “ideological takeover,” warned Hillsdale professor Dr. Matthew Spaulding on “Washington Watch.” “There’s really nothing there about America.” Instead, the museum in America’s capital that should tell America’s story has replaced that story with one “based on absolute relativism and nihilism, and [the notion that] politics is merely an assertion of power. In this case: ‘history is an assertion of power, and so we’re going to rearrange it.’”

Spaulding’s assessment aligns with a 162-page report released by the White House on July 4, which found the same concerning departure from America’s heritage. “Our central finding is not that the Museum has simply added overlooked stories, corrected perceived errors, or broadened its historical scope,” the report summarized. “Rather, it is that Museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”

That report was compiled in accord with President Donald Trump’s March 27, 2025 executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order directed a full review of the narratives at America’s national history sites, citing multiple examples of egregious wokeness in the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian Museum of American History did not make the initial list, but its subtlety failed to pass closer inspection.

“It’s just strikingly odd and deeply disturbing what is there and [what was] replaced,” said Spaulding. “You can’t go there and learn about America. … Everything about America that we would think you would find in a history museum of national American history is gone, or at least so downplayed and decentered [to the point] that it’s meaningless.” People “go there, and they’ll learn nothing about the narrative or chronology of this history.”

“In its place, they have all sorts of other things which are … very disturbing: a little girl’s diary about wondering whether she’s going to have grown male sexual parts, there’s drag queens, there’s all sorts of outfits used for odd sexual practices.”

“Just what I need to know about American history,” FRC President Tony Perkins interjected facetiously. “Exactly,” Spaulding replied, “and that’s what’s replaced it. So it’s a one-two punch.”

While people will learn nothing of the overall American story, “they will learn that Benjamin Franklin had indentured servants and slaves,” Spaulding said, “and [the exhibit] ponders whether he actually did electrical experiments on his slaves.” Of course, “they don’t know that,” and there is no evidence that he did, but the museum replaces history with uncharitable speculation, Spaulding argued. “Indeed, both Franklin and Hamilton — unmentioned in the museum — actually both became heads of abolitionist organizations in their home states. But that’s not there.” It “doesn’t fit the narrative,” Perkins agreed.

“You can get caught in the weeds of the particulars,” Spaulding advised. “The particulars are shocking. But, [when] you put the particulars together and see what it’s replaced, it doesn’t tell American history.”

The Washington Stand has sounded the alarm about wokeness at the Smithsonian Museum of American History since its inception in 2022. On September 2, 2022, contributor Claire Gatzke highlighted “an exhibit called ‘Girlhood: It’s Complicated,’” which “not-so-subtly reflects critical theory’s rejection of authority itself and its division of people into categories of oppressed and oppressor.” Gatzke also reported, “In the ‘Wellness’ section of the exhibit, Jazz Jennings is highlighted. The exhibit describes Jennings (a biological male) as a girl who was one of the youngest publicly documented people to identify as transgender.”

“Their own documents lay out very clearly what they’re doing,” Spaulding continued. “This is a postmodern theory of history, which is not about history. Everything’s about a struggle. It’s about oppression and oppressed peoples.”

In 2021, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture provoked outrage for a chart attacking “self-reliance”; “the nuclear family”; “objective, rational linear thinking”; the “Judeo-Christian tradition”; “hard work [as] the key to success”; “delayed gratification”; “protect[ing] property”; “decision-making”; and “be[ing] polite” as aspects of “white culture.”

Such products should have generated stricter oversight of Smithsonian narratives even then. But “the right people weren’t paying attention. That’s how they wanted it,” Spaulding suggested. “We could have seen it coming, but now we’re seeing the fruits of it.”

There was “new leadership at the Smithsonian in general, then the director of the Museum [of American History] in particular, and then they’ve been putting out, every year, various interpretive plans, various annual reports,” Spaulding continued. “They changed the mission statement. They removed ‘history’ itself; now [it] merely refers to ‘our past’ — but removed the word ‘American.’ But it also added the word ‘empowerment.’ So, the objective is to ‘empower’ people by essentially using history.”

The White House report also notes the change in mission statement, “which replaced the phrases ‘infinite richness’ and ‘American history’ with language about empowering people to create ‘a more just and compassionate future’ by exploring ‘the complexity of our past.’ In the words of Director Hartig, this was done in order to ‘get out of the “America First” mentality’ when telling history.”

But American history is America first, second, and only. “This is their view of history … replace history with what they think it ought to be,” Spaulding rejoined. “This goes back to what’s called critical theory, postmodernism … connected to … ideas in the academic world … that there are no permanent truths. It’s completely based on absolute relativism and nihilism, and politics is merely an assertion of power. In this case, ‘history is an assertion of power. And so we’re going to rearrange it.’” Politically, this worldview has “given rise to … among other things, these socialist movements,” he added.

Perkins observed that the Marxists’ “Long March through the Institutions” appears to now be reaching the museums. “All this stuff that we’ve been fighting, that we’ve been talking about [on] college campuses we’re funding right here,” Perkins protested.

“We’re paying for it,” Spaulding confirmed. “Their budget’s about $1 billion a year. And about two-thirds comes from Congress.”

“The alarming thing about this is that the Smithsonian has long been a trusted institution that has been a part of the curriculum in America’s public schools,” said Perkins. “When kids come here … they go to all of these museums when they come here on school trips.” Spaulding agreed, “It’s the number one institution that people go to: schools, students, scholars.”

The Marxists have now turned a trusted American institution into a propaganda weapon to slander America’s character. “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,” Trump stated in his executive order. “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.”

If ever, now is the time to address this issue, Spaulding suggested. “This Smithsonian question [is] so pertinent and immediate — of all times — when we’re spending the 250th anniversary of America.” Perkins concluded by citing George Orwell, a socialist critic of socialism, who understood both its aims and its shortcomings: “he who controls the present controls the past.”