By Parker Soughers
“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” This quote comes from George Orwell’s 1984, a book notorious for its depiction of a totalitarian dystopia. Orwell provides an example of a fictional government’s methods of control, allowing them to manipulate history and media. This is a theme that is extremely prevalent in today’s society and political landscape.
On March 27th, President Donald J. Trump signed the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order into effect. Its contents are designed to limit what President Trump claims as “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives” within the Smithsonian Institute and its exhibits.
The executive order would require the reinstatement of certain Confederate statues removed after the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement that followed the death of George Floyd. The order places Vice President JD Vance in charge of these restorations. Vance’s ex-officio duty on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, as outlined in the executive order, is to “to remove improper ideology from such properties, and shall recommend to the President any additional actions necessary to fully effectuate such policies.”
Other exhibits and museums that have been highlighted by the order are “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” located at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the American Women’s History Museum recognition of transgender athletes. The purpose of the executive order is to effectively erase and control American history and the form that it is presented to the general public.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded on an estate granted to Congress by James Smithson, a British scientist. His exact wording for how the money was to be used was to establish “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
The action taken by Trump is not dissimilar to his other endeavors in overhauling existing Washington establishments involved in arts and history. He has also instituted himself chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, all in order to ban drag performances. “Banning an entire art form is censorship, plain and simple,” said Blaq Dinamyte, president of Qommittee, which is a national network of drag artists and allies, in an interview with AP News. “Americans don’t have to agree on everything, but we should be able to speak our minds and perform our art without bans, retaliation, or intimidation.”
Censorship through budget cutting has been President Trump’s current strategy. In early March, Trump revoked over 400 million dollars of research grants and funding from Columbia University. His reasoning: the way that the university had handled protests against Israel’s military action against Gaza. One of the stipulations to regain this funding was to place Columbia’s South Asian, Middle East, and African Studies Departments under “academic receivership for a minimum of 5 years,” according to AP News.
The same fund-revoking strategy is used with Trump’s actions against the Smithsonian. As a member of the Board of Regents, Vance will ensure that funding is not spent on exhibits or programs that “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.”
Rewriting history is a form of control. Censoring art forms and ways of expression on a national stage goes against the very ideals of the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights. History is important in all of its facets, even aspects that portray the tragedies and the horrific events that people have endured. Mark Twain wrote, “The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” Today prejudice is explicitly expressed by Trump’s censorship of transgender achievements and Black History in the Smithsonian Institute in order to “…restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.”
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