Trump Report's Critique of Smithsonian Museum Exposed as Flawed

A New Republic article by Philip Kennicott dismantles the White House Domestic Policy Council's report 'Saving America's Story,' released July 4, which attacks the National Museum of American History (NMAH) and its director Anthea Hartig. The report mentions 'Hartig' 229 times, focusing on her pronouns and desire to 'problematize' the semiquincentennial, rather than visitor experience. Kennicott examines four specific didactics criticized by the report, finding them factually accurate or misrepresented. For instance, a didactic on Alexander Hamilton in 'Entertainment Nation' calls him an 'influential and flawed founding father' partly for possibly owning slaves; Kennicott notes Hamilton's extramarital affair is a more prominent flaw. Another didactic in 'Many Voices, One Nation' describes European settlement as 'a profound unsettling' due to disease decimating Native populations—a historical fact. The report calls a didactic stating early leaders envisioned freedom 'only for some' a 'slander of America,' but Kennicott counters that women and Blacks were excluded from voting and enslaved. Kennicott concludes the report is a shoddy polemic, akin to the peeling sealant in the Reflecting Pool's $15 million renovation.