Why is Trump going after the Smithsonian museums?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Smithsonian museums are now the focus of a review ordered by US President Donald Trump targeting exhibits on slavery, immigration and LGBTQ history. The White House told The Take taxpayer money should not fund displays that divide Americans and the Smithsonian Institution should present history in an accurate, factual way. Can Trump reshape the largest museum complex in the world?
In this episode:
- Samuel J. Redman, Professor of History & Director of Public History Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Diana Ferrero, Noor Wazwaz, and Tracie Hunte, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Kisaa Zehra, Farhan Rafid, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Amy Walters and Sarí el-Khalili.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, who gets to decide what Americans should remember? |
| 0:16.3 | President Trump says he has instructed his lawyers to scour through America's museums to rid them of exhibits he considers woke, specifically citing exhibits on slavery. |
| 0:27.6 | As the Trump administration takes aim at museums in the U.S. Capitol, is he trying to rewrite history? |
| 0:36.6 | I'm Alika Bilal, and this is The Take. |
| 0:45.9 | My name is Samuel J. Reddenin. |
| 0:48.7 | I am a professor of history in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts, |
| 0:53.7 | Amherst, where I'm also |
| 0:55.1 | the director of our public history program. And previously, I have written quite a bit on the |
| 1:01.6 | history of the Smithsonian Institution. Well, you are the perfect person to talk to today. Sam, |
| 1:06.8 | welcome to The Take. President Trump is taking aim at the Smithsonian, the world's largest museum complex. |
| 1:14.8 | He used his social media platform, Truth Social, to call it a place where, quote, |
| 1:20.1 | everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been, end quote. |
| 1:29.2 | How do you interpret that comment and what does it mean for this vast network of museums visited by millions of people every year? |
| 1:41.6 | I hope on some level we still have the ability to be shocked after all of the shocking developments, |
| 1:48.7 | but Donald Trump himself had a very different description of the Smithsonian back in 2017 |
| 1:55.7 | when he lauded the institution for its progress and its development. |
| 2:00.6 | I'm deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the He lauded the institution for its progress and its development. |
| 2:16.0 | I'm deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage, especially when it comes to faith, culture, and the unbreakable American spirit. |
| 2:20.0 | Honestly, to sum it up in a single word, it's quite strange, frankly. |
| 2:24.7 | Okay, well, for our audience outside of Washington, D.C., or those who aren't historians like you who've written a book on this topic, |
| 2:29.7 | how would you describe the Smithsonian? What should we know about it? |
... |
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