GOP, YOUR SILENCE ALIGNS YOU WITH THIS RACISM!
đ¨ Trump vs. Museums: Because History is Just Too Woke
Ladies and gentlemen, pull up a folding chair and a glass of boxed Chardonnay because the former president has done it again. Just when you thought we had reached peak absurdity, Donald J. Trump, patron saint of grievance politics, has decided that museums are the last bastion of wokeness in America. Yes, you read that correctly. Not universities, not the media, not librariesâmuseums. Those dusty institutions filled with skeletons, dinosaur bones, and dioramas are apparently the frontline in his never-ending war on reality.
Hereâs Trump in his own words, because frankly, satire cowers in the corner when faced with this kind of unfiltered nonsense:
âThe Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of âWOKE.â The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been â Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the FutureâŚâ
Now, I donât know about you, but when I walk into a museum, the first thing I think is, Wow, this exhibit about Civil War amputations really needs more sunshine and rainbows. How dare museums talk about slavery, genocide, oppression, or, God forbid, actual history? Donât they know America was built entirely on self-reliant billionaires with golden toilets?
Trump wants âBrightnessâ in museums. Brightness! I suppose instead of confronting the horrors of slavery, we could just put up neon posters saying âIt Wasnât That Bad!â Or maybe a wax figure of Robert E. Lee giving thumbs-up with the caption: At least he had good uniforms.
But hereâs the kicker: heâs threatening to send in the lawyers. Thatâs rightâhis legal brain trust (the same one that couldnât win 60 court cases on election fraud) is now going to storm the Smithsonian with subpoenas. Somewhere, a T-Rex skeleton is shaking its tiny arms in fear.
This isnât just idiotic, itâs racist. Trump is angry that museums discuss slavery as if it was bad. He complains thereâs too much about the âdowntroddenâ and not enough about âsuccess.â Translation: stop talking about Black pain and Indigenous suffering; letâs get back to celebrating rich white guys and their marble busts. He wants history that flatters his supportersâ fantasies, not history that challenges anyoneâs comfort.
The irony? If Trump had his way, the National Museum of African American History and Culture would replace its slavery exhibits with a gift shop selling red MAGA visors and âWoke Is Brokeâ bumper stickers. Instead of a Rosa Parks bus, weâd have a life-size replica of Trumpâs escalator ride in 2015. And forget the Hall of Fossilsâjust put up a 20-foot animatronic Trump growling, âThe dinosaurs loved me, everyone says so.â
Museums, by definition, preserve truth. They showcase the artifacts of who we were, the mistakes we made, and the progress weâve clawed our way toward. Theyâre not supposed to be propaganda halls for fragile egos. But Trump doesnât want truthâhe wants a curated fantasyland where America is perfect, racism never existed, and the only history worth telling is how he single-handedly invented patriotism.
Itâs funny until you realize it isnât. This is how authoritarian regimes operate: erase the uncomfortable parts of history, glorify the leaders, sanitize the narrative until itâs nothing but patriotic fluff. Ask any German why Holocaust museums matter. Ask any South African about apartheid memorials. You donât build a better future by pretending the past was all ice cream socials and brass bands.
So, the next time youâre wandering the Smithsonian, standing in front of Harriet Tubmanâs shawl, or Emmett Tillâs casket, or even the Apollo 11 command module, remember: Donald Trump thinks youâre being force-fed wokeness. Heâd rather you stare at a portrait of him grinning with a Big Mac in one hand and the nuclear codes in the other.
Museums donât need Trumpâs âBrightness.â What they need is protection from his darkness. Because the second we start letting politicians dictate history is the second we stop learning from it. And if Trump hates museums now, just wait until he finds out about libraries.
đ Closing thought: If Trump really wants more âsuccessâ in museums, maybe they can dedicate a new wing at the Smithsonian: The Art of the Indictment. Interactive exhibits include âCount the Felonies,â âStormy Daniels Theater,â and a rotating display of unpaid legal bills. Now thatâs history worth displaying!
Julie Bolejack, MBA