Continuing his offensive against American educational and cultural institutions, US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he had asked the justice to investigate museums throughout the country he accuses of being “woke”. His approach targets in particular the history of slavery.
“Washington’s museums, but also throughout the country, are essentially the last remains of ‘wokism’,” said the president on his social network Truth Social. “I gave instruction to my prosecutors to review [la politique des] museums and start exactly the same process followed with universities, where huge advances have been made, “added the conservative billionaire. “This country cannot be ‘woke’ because ‘wokism’ is over,” he proclaimed.
The White House had announced last week in a letter to the institution which manages around twenty public museums in Washington, the Smithsonian Institution, that the government was going to carry out an in-depth examination to ensure their “alignment” with the vision of the history of the United States advocated by Donald Trump, based on “truth and reason”.
“Ideological indoctrination”
“Smithsonian is out of control,” said Donald Trump, deploring that the museums of the federal capital present, according to him a “horrible image of our country, [notamment] On the misdeeds of slavery […] And nothing about its success and its brilliance ”.
The American president signed last March a decree aimed at regaining control of the content of the museums of Smithsonian, which he had already accused of “historical revisionism” and racial “ideological indoctrination”, in particular under his predecessors to the presidency of the United States and political enemies Barack Obama (2009-2017) and Joe Biden (2021-2025).
The US government justified these measures against museums – which also affect the Washington cultural center, the Kennedy Center – by the 250th anniversary festivities of the United States independence in 2026.
Donald Trump has been committed for seven months in a rapid recovery of cultural and educational institutions on which he has an influence, from museums to universities, in order to expurge them from what he considers to be progressive ideas in favor of minorities.