Trump vows to develop his assessment of U.S. museums. Can he try this? : NPR

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Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs On his Reality Social platform Tuesday, President Trump referred to as the Smithsonian Establishment and different museums "the final remaining section of 'WOKE.'" He added, "I've instructed my attorneys to undergo the Museums, and begin the very same course of that has been accomplished with Faculties and Universities."

The White Home began an audit of the Smithsonian earlier this month. However what about different establishments? It's unclear what authorized and monetary pressures his administration would possibly pursue in attempting to align American museums to his imaginative and prescient.

The president's publish on Reality Social was not clear: was he referring simply to the Smithsonian museums, or to American museums extra broadly? NPR requested the White Home to make clear this problem. A White Home official, who requested anonymity as a result of they aren't licensed to debate the specifics of the plan, responded in a press release: "President Trump will discover all choices and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and maintain them accountable. He'll begin with the Smithsonian after which go from there."

The administration's assessment may embrace many establishments: the membership of the American Alliance of Museums contains round 22,000 establishments throughout the nation — the whole lot from the enormous, internationally-known artwork museums, to historic homes, pure historical past museums, native historic societies and botanical gardens. Many deal with historical past, identification, the setting and different topics which are politically polarized.

It's unclear what the timeline could also be for these opinions, what the metrics is likely to be for achievement and who can be doing the reviewing.

In a press release to NPR Wednesday, the president and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums, Marilyn Jackson, framed the problem as one in every of inventive and scholarly independence. She wrote:

"The concept of extending federal opinions to the nation's 22,000 museums misunderstands how museums function. The overwhelming majority are unbiased nonprofits, guided by skilled requirements and group belief. Museums can not and shouldn't be topic to authorities assessment of their exhibitions. The integrity of museums is determined by their independence, and that is what makes them so worthwhile to the general public."

Does the White Home have any particular museums in thoughts for assessment? In Tuesday's publish, Trump appeared to particularly goal representations of Black American historical past and expertise, writing: "The whole lot mentioned is how horrible our Nation is, how dangerous Slavery was, and the way unaccomplished the downtrodden have been." Certainly, the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition is without doubt one of the eight Smithsonian museums pinpointed for fast assessment — together with others just like the Air and Area Museum.

Trump Administration critics, together with a number of Democratic Congressional representatives, like Rep. Bennie Thompson, have stated this 12 months that the President is attempting to erase "Black voices and historical past." The New York Metropolis Bar launched a press release in June saying that it appeared just like the president and his administration are attempting to dismantle the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"The widespread thread operating by all these orders and actions is that the civil rights legal guidelines can and needs to be invoked to justify defending a dominant group (i.e., white folks or cisgender women) on the expense of the rights of minority teams and in contravention of the transformative function of those legal guidelines," the NYC Bar assertion learn.

Why was the Smithsonian the primary focus of the administration's consideration? The Smithsonian is a singular case: it was based by Congress and receives 62% of its funding from federal sources. It additionally figures prominently within the nation's creativeness and is a serious vacationer attract Washington, D.C.; there have been 16.8 million visits to Smithsonian-affiliated establishments final 12 months.

NPR has reached out for remark from the Smithsonian Establishment, however didn't obtain a reply.

How a lot federal funding do different, non-Smithsonian museums obtain? In response to information collected and analyzed by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), 63% of organizations obtain some form of federal funding; about 36% obtain direct federal help.

Nevertheless, these numbers do not take note of this spring's gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Providers or the slashing of budgets on the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities, so we simply do not know but what present figures appear like. (A federal choose not too long ago dominated that the elimination of NEH grants was illegal.)

The AAM advised NPR on Wednesday that it has simply closed a brand new survey of its membership in regards to the impression of such cuts, however the brand new information will not be but out there.

What about funding at decrease ranges of presidency? As of its final survey, the AAM says that about 20% of United States museums are operated by some degree of presidency: 2% by the federal authorities; 10% by the states; 2% by counties; 6% by municipalities; 2% by counties; and 0.3% by tribal governments.

Specialists within the museum world say they're involved that authorities officers on the state or native degree might attempt to align their establishments with Trump's imaginative and prescient, through the use of the monetary leverage they've. For instance, many native museums sit on government-owned land that they both occupy totally free or hire for a nominal payment.

Museum leaders are additionally privately expressing issues that main donors — whether or not company sponsors or particular person philanthropists — might press museum executives and curators to reframe their exhibitions to suit political narratives that adjust to these coming from the White Home.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fba%2Fe0%2F72a72fab4ee1b70c3c048a8b89f6%2Fgettyimages-2218040088.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fba%2Fe0%2F72a72fab4ee1b70c3c048a8b89f6%2Fgettyimages-2218040088.jpg" class="img" alt="The Widener Library on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Harvard University won a longer-term reprieve from a Trump administration ban on enrolling international students, handing the nations oldest and richest university a victory in its battle with the White House." loading="lazy"/> The Widener Library on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Harvard College gained a longer-term reprieve from a Trump administration ban on enrolling worldwide college students, handing the nations oldest and richest college a victory in its battle with the White Home. Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs conceal caption

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Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs In Tuesday's publish, Trump wrote that he intends to assessment museums in an analogous approach to the White Home's audit of universities and faculties. Is that attainable? The Trump administration has argued that universities like Harvard, Columbia and Brown violated federal civil rights legislation by failing to guard their communities from alleged antisemitism. It's unclear what authorized argument the White Home would possibly make in opposition to museums.

In an interview, Patty Gerstenblith, professor of legislation and director of the Middle for Artwork, Museum & Cultural Heritage Regulation at DePaul Faculty of Regulation in Chicago, emphasised that museums have a First Modification proper of expression that's clearly established by case legislation, and that creative expression can be protected free speech.

"I do not consider that the federal government may instantly prohibit what the museum presents to the American public — it will be a violation of the First Modification," she stated.

Nevertheless, she stated, freedom of expression doesn't essentially imply that the federal authorities is required to pay for that expression.

Gerstenblith additionally stated that funding and free speech points are complicated.

"Speech will be regulated," Gerstenblith stated, "however it could possibly't be regulated on the idea of what is referred to as viewpoint discrimination. So for instance, a funding company may say, 'We're not going to present any cash to any particular exhibit,' and that might be wonderful. But when they stated, 'We won't give funding to a particular exhibit that has a specific viewpoint,' then I feel that might violate the First Modification."

However there may be one other component at play, Gerstenblith stated.

"Is that this speech authorities speech, or is it non-public speech? As a result of the federal government can regulate its personal speech nonetheless it desires, together with viewpoint discrimination. So to the extent it is authorities speech, no one can do something about it. Some would argue that [by] funding . . . a particular exhibit [it] turns into authorities speech."

What has the Supreme Courtroom stated about arts funding? The Supreme Courtroom weighed in with a landmark case in 1998, in a really totally different political period. Nationwide Endowment for the Arts v. Finley addressed whether or not the federal government may regulate artwork in the event that they funded it, after Congress handed a legislation saying that appropriated funding was depending on assembly a decency customary.

In that case, 4 artists — Karen Finley, Holly Hughes, John Fleck and Tim Miller — sued the NEA, claiming that the company had violated their freedom of speech rights. The Supreme Courtroom upheld the "decency" requirement.

What are students and different consultants saying? On Aug. 15, after the White Home introduced the Smithsonian assessment, the American Alliance of Museums addressed what it referred to as "rising threats of censorship," including: "This isn't only a concern for choose establishments. These pressures can create a chilling impact throughout your entire museum sector. Freedom of thought and expression are foundational American values, and museums uphold them by creating areas the place folks can interact with historical past, science, artwork and tradition in methods which are sincere, fact-based and thought-provoking."

Different skilled organizations are additionally pushing again, together with the Organizaition of American HIstorians (OAH), which referred to as the proposed oversight an try "to weaponize our shared previous to serve political imperatives of the current and an imagined future," and the American Affiliation for State and Native Historical past (AASLH), which referred to as the federal government's confrontation with the Smithsonian "an affront to our nation's cultural crown jewel, to historical past practitioners in every single place, and to the American folks."

President Trump is now the chair of the Kennedy Middle, which can be in Washington, D.C. Is there any direct relationship between what's taking place there and on the Smithsonian? <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4145x4147+780+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F55%2F12%2Ffb3eeb754f51af669e500b79d31a%2Fgettyimages-2205591763.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4145x4147+780+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F55%2F12%2Ffb3eeb754f51af669e500b79d31a%2Fgettyimages-2205591763.jpg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 17: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media in the Hall of Nations during a tour at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after leading a board meeting on March 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. After shunning the annual Kennedy Center Honors during his first term in the White House, Trump fired the center’s president, removed the bipartisan board of Biden appointees and named himself Chairman of the storied music, theater and dance institution. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" loading="lazy"/>

They each appear to be indicators that the president is sort of invested in his second time period in shaping how People expertise tradition and the nation's historical past, particularly how it's expressed within the nation's capital. However there is no direct hyperlink or relationship.