President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at undoing many of the changes made during the racial reckoning movement, including the restoration of monuments, and the removal of so-called “anti-American ideology” from national museums and other federal properties.
The White House said the order was part of “restoring truth and sanity to American history by revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.”
The executive order calls for the removal of “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo,” pointing to exhibits that address the United States’ history of racism and celebrate the transgender rights movement.
“The prior administration pushed a divisive ideology that reconstrued America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives,” the order reads.
Trump’s directive also calls on the Secretary of the Interior to restore statues and other monuments that have been “improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.”
Many monuments to racist figures in American history were vandalized and ultimately removed during the 2020 uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd. In the capital, those include memorials honoring Confederate generals and a pro-slavery Supreme Court justice who said Black people were not American citizens.
While in office, former President Joe Biden supported the removal of racist statues from public squares and advocated for moving them to museums focused on that aspect of American history.
Trump has signed more than 100 executive orders ― directives that do not require Congressional approval ― just two months into his term, far outpacing the number of orders signed by at least the past 14 presidents.
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