Museums are often remembered as those places where we took unmemorable elementary school field trips; halls filled with dusty artifacts of the past and endless informational plaques.But is that really all they are?

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When asked why museums matter, Daniel Weiss, an art historian and former president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said, “They bring us together as disparate individuals in shared purpose. They allow us to discuss, debate, and find capacity for agreement across difference. If we can model that in an art museum, then maybe we can learn to do it in government and in the larger society.” 

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Museums allow us the opportunity to not only see ourselves–both the good and the bad–but understand and connect with others. Knowledge, empathy, and understanding sit at the heart of the museum going experience, however that has recently been placed under attack.

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In March 2025, President Trump signed the executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, directly targeting federally funded cultural institutions, most notably the Smithsonian Institution, with the stated goal of “revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.” Under this mandate, Vice President JD Vance, a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, is tasked with overseeing the removal of what the administration deems “improper ideology” and ensuring all public-facing content aligns with “American exceptionalism.”

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The immediate results of this order have been swift and transformative. The Smithsonian was forced to close its diversity office to comply with a related ban on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Additionally, the White House initiated a comprehensive review of 8 of their museums, including the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to evaluate their “historical framing” and “tone.” Curators have been ordered to submit digital files of all wall texts, labels, and exhibition plans for executive scrutiny. 

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This executive order even extended to the physical landscape of the country, directing the Department of the Interior to reinstate monuments and statues–including those of Confederate figures–that were removed or changed in recent years. 

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This decision is rooted in government censorship that undermines the integrity of scholarly independence and freedom of expression. By tying federal funding to ideological compliance, evidence-based research and facts are replaced with fiction and ideology, turning historical curation into a form of propaganda that “flattens” the American story into a “narrow, unrepresentative, and simplified narrative.”

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This is not merely an administrative shift. The American Association for State and Local History warns that this order threatens to “rob the public of its ability to learn from the past” by censoring content that fits a “predetermined, triumphalist narrative.” When curators must fear for their careers or funding, entire areas of history are left unexplored, creating a generation who is not only under-educated but misinformed about the costs of American progress.

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Furthermore, this order threatens the average person’s trust in museums as accurate and authoritative sources of history. Americans consistently report wanting a complete picture of the past, without omissions or sugarcoating uncomfortable truths. This desire for a full narrative is not a product of an ideology; rather, a demand for historical accuracy and museums have a professional and ethical obligation to report the whole of American history. Reporting on the country's long, complicated, and exclusionary history is essential to providing a backdrop that is necessary to understand the nation’s actual achievements. 

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The independence of museums is vital to the health of a democracy. As civil rights attorney and museum founder Bryan Stevenson argues, no one goes to a doctor and asks them to hide a diagnosis of high blood pressure or diabetes just because it is unpleasant to hear; confronting the hard truth is the only way to overcome it.