The Trump administration attorney leading the White House review of the Smithsonian Institution’s programming said the museum has an “overemphasis on slavery.”
Lindsey Halligan, a special assistant to the president, spoke to Fox News on Wednesday after the president blasted the Smithsonian on Truth Social for being “OUT OF CONTROL” for discussing “how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”
Halligan appeared to go further than the president when asked by host John Roberts about museums reflecting America’s “checkered past.”
“The fact our country was involved in slavery is awful. No one thinks otherwise,” she said.
“But what I saw when I was going through the museum, personally, was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”
“We should be able to take our kids, our students, through the Smithsonian and feel proud when we leave,” Halligan continued. “There’s a lot of history to our country — both positive and negative — but we need to keep moving forward. We can’t just keep focusing on the negative. All it does is divide us.”
The Trump administration has accused the Smithsonian of promoting “improper ideology,” and in August said it was carrying out a review of museum exhibits, curatorial materials and other operations in advance of the country’s 250th anniversary next year.
The vast institution includes 21 museums, 21 libraries and a zoo. The American history museum, natural history museum, African American history museum and American Indian museum are all affected by the review.
Trump has indicated he is extending the audit to all U.S. museums after lashing out at them for being “the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’”
In an interview with The Washington Post in April, Halligan took credit for Trump issuing an executive order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” after raising concerns about the Smithsonian’s content with him.
“I talked to the president about it, and suggested an executive order, and he gave me his blessing, and here we are,” said Halligan, who started working for Trump’s legal team in 2022 and moved to D.C. just before the inauguration.