from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Thursday,

August 21st. Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley is with us now to talk about this moment

in America as we continue to ask on this show, is this what

democracy looks like? Brinkley was quoted in the New York Times article on Tuesday about President

Trump ordering the Smithsonian Institution to adjust the, quote, tone, historical framing,

and alignment with American ideals, unquote, of the Smithsonian's historical and artistic

exhibitions. The president posted this week that, quote, 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 nothing about success,

nothing about brightness, nothing about the future, unquote.

This all comes after an earlier executive order back in March that directed the Smithsonian

to, quote, remove improper ideology, remove improper ideology, unquote.

The AP says that order covers all areas of the institution,

including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo. And it's not just

the Smithsonian, which is a federal government-related institution. Last week, Trump posted that

he would be using government power to influence the ideology of the

nation's private museums as well. He said, quote, I have instructed my attorneys to go through

the museums and start the exact same process that has been done with colleges and universities,

unquote. This all comes just as Trump announced his handpicked list of awardees for this year's

Kennedy Center honors to get away from artists he considers woke. He has also suggested that they

renamed that institution the Trump Kennedy Center. The AP reminds us that in the executive order in

March, Trump singled out for criticism the National Museum

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