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The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘It reminds you of a fascist state': Smithsonian Institution braces for Trump rewrite of US history
In a brightly lit gallery, they see the 66m-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. In a darkened room, they study the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem. In a vast aviation hanger, they behold a space shuttle. And in a discreet corner, they file solemnly past the casket of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman in the US south. Visitors have come in their millions to the Smithsonian Institution, the world's biggest museum, education and research complex, in Washington for the past 178 years. On Thursday, Donald Trump arrived with his cultural wrecking ball. The US president, who has sought to root out 'wokeness' since returning to power in January, accused the Smithsonian of trying to rewrite history on issues of race and gender. In an executive order entitled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History', he directed the removal of 'improper, divisive or anti-American ideology' from its storied museums. The move was met with dismay from historians who saw it as an attempt to whitewash the past and suppress discussions of systemic racism and social justice. With Trump having also taken over the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, there are fears that, in authoritarian fashion, he is aiming to control the future by controlling the past. 'It is a five-alarm fire for public history, science and education in America,' said Samuel Redman, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 'While the Smithsonian has faced crisis moments in the past, it has not been directly attacked in quite this way by the executive branch in its long history. It's troubling and quite scary.' The Smithsonian was conceived in the 19th century by the British scientist James Smithson, who, despite never setting foot in the US, bequeathed his estate for the purpose of a Washington-based establishment that would help with 'the increase and diffusion of knowledge'. In 1846, 17 years after Smithson's death, then president James Polk signed legislation calling for the institution's formation. The Smithsonian now spans 21 museums, most of them in the nation's capital lining the national mall from the US Capitol to the Washington monument, including the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The National Portrait Gallery, which displays a photo of Trump in its presidents gallery, is in downtown Washington. The Smithsonian also encompasses the National Zoo, famed for its giant pandas, and 14 education and research centres employing thousands of scientists and scholars and offering various programmes for schools. Visitors to the National Museum of Natural History's FossiLab can see paleobiologists chipping away at rock to uncover bones buried for hundreds of millions of years. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory played a key role in the Event Horizon Telescope project, which produced the first-ever image of a black hole in 2019. About 60% of the Smithsonian's funding comes from the federal government, but trust funds and private sources also provide money. The institution has known its share of controversies. In 1995, the air and space museum planned to display the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, with accompanying text that critics complained was more sympathetic to Japan than the US. The exhibition was cancelled and the plane put on display with no interpretation. Trump visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture a month after taking office in 2017. His reaction to the Dutch role in the global slave trade was: 'You know, they love me in the Netherlands,' according to the museum's founding director, Lonnie Bunch, who subsequently became the first Black person to lead the Smithsonian. Trump paid little attention to the institution during the rest of his first term, although in 2019 his vice-president, Mike Pence, took part in the unveiling of Neil Armstrong's spacesuit at the air and space museum, marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. As in so many other ways, however, Trump's second term is a whole different beast. The president believes there has been a 'concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth', according to the White House executive order. He argues this 'revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light'. The order also asserts: 'Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.' It cherrypicks examples, arguing that the African American museum 'has proclaimed that 'hard work,' 'individualism' and 'the nuclear family' are aspects of 'white culture''. This refers to content that was on the museum's website in 2020 and later removed after criticism. The order points to the exhibition The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, currently on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which states that societies including the US have used race to establish systems of power and that 'race is a human invention'. It criticises a planned women's museum for 'celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women's sports' and aims to ensure the museum does not 'recognize men as women in any respect'. The order stipulates that the vice-president, JD Vance, a member of the Smithsonian's board of regents, work with Congress and the office of management and budget to block programmes that 'degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy'. It calls for new citizen members 'committed to advancing the policy of this order'. All of this is in line with his administration's efforts to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in government, universities and corporations. The Smithsonian shut its diversity office soon after the president signed a January executive order banning DEI programmes at organisations that receive federal money. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion It is also of a piece with Trump's longstanding demand for 'patriotic' education. In February, he issued an executive order re-establishing his 1776 Commission, which was a riposte to the New York Times newspaper's 1619 Project – and he has been a strident critic of renaming or removing Confederate statues and monuments. The order bears the hallmark of the conservative Heritage Foundation, which created the influential Project 2025. The thinktank's website has an article that describes the 1619 project as 'yet another attempt to brainwash you into believing your country is racist, evil and needs revolutionary transformation'. Another warns that the Smithsonian's proposed Latino museum would be 'a woke indoctrination factory'. But progressives say the cultural clampdown will only sow further discord. Tope Folarin, a Nigerian American writer and executive director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, said in an email: 'You cannot 'foster unity' by refusing to tell the truth about our history. Ignorance of the truth is what actually deepens societal divides. 'These museums are important because they tell the full American story in an unvarnished way. We will only achieve unity when we are able to reckon with the truth about how this country was founded, and acknowledge the heroes who worked continuously to bring us together.' On Friday, the mood at the Smithsonian, which has long enjoyed positive relations with both Democratic and Republican administrations, was rife with uncertainty. Many had been bracing for this moment, but it remained unclear what impact the order will have on staffing levels or current and future exhibitions, including plans to celebrate next year's 250th anniversary of US independence. David Blight, a historian and close friend of Bunch, the Smithsonian's secretary, said: 'I haven't talked to him yet. I'm sure he's trying to decide what to do. I hope he doesn't resign but that's probably what they want. They want the leadership of the Smithsonian, the directors of these museums, to resign so they can replace them.' Blight, who is the current president of the Organization of American Historians, was 'appalled, angry, frustrated but not fully surprised', when he read the executive order. 'There have been plenty of other executive orders but this is a frontal assault,' he said. 'I read it as basically a declaration of war on American historians and curators and on the Smithsonian.' The professor of history and African American studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, continued: 'What's most appalling about this is the arrogance, or worse, the audacity to assume that the executive branch of government, the presidency, can simply dictate to American historians writ large the nature of doing history and its content. 'I take it as an insult, an affront and an attempt to control what we do as historians. On the one hand this kind of executive order is so absurd that a lot of people in my field laugh at it. It's a laughable thing until you realise what their intent actually is and what they're doing is trying to first erode and then obliterate what we've been writing for a century.' Trump's previous cultural targets have included the Kennedy Center and Institute of Museum and Library Services. This week he urged congressional Republicans to defund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). He has also threatened to cut funding to universities refusing to bend the knee. Blight regards the moves as drawn from the authoritarian playbook: 'It's what the Nazis did. It's what Spain did. It's what Mussolini tried. This is like the Soviets: they revised the Soviet encyclopedia every year to update the official history. Americans don't have an official history; at least we've tried never to have.' The sentiment was echoed by Raymond Arsenault, a professor of southern history at the University of South Florida, St Petersburg. He said: 'What is written in that order sounds almost Orwellian in the way Trump thinks he can mandate a mythic conception of American history that's almost Disney-esque with only happy endings, only heroic figures, no attention at all to the complexity of American history and the struggles to have a more perfect union. He added: 'It's so chilling. Everything I've worked on in my career is simply ruled out by this one executive order. It's like the barbarian sack of Rome in the level of ignorance and ill-will and anti-intellectualism.' Arsenault, a biographer of John Lewis, who was instrumental in creating the African American museum, said the late congressmen would be 'shocked' by Trump's order: 'It's totalitarian. It does remind you of a fascist state and makes us a laughingstock around the western world. I have to confess in my worst nightmares I didn't think it would proceed this far in terms of willful megalomania.'
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Comedians roast Trump as Conan O'Brien honored at Kennedy Center
Leading comedians have defied Donald Trump's takeover of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in a show that one described as 'the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever'. Trump did not attend Sunday's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honouring Conan O'Brien for lifetime achievement in comedy. But his ears may have been burning as comics and celebrities joked at his expense in what became a rallying cry for freedom of artistic expression. None was more direct than Sarah Silverman, who told how she had appeared on O'Brien's late night TV show. 'They wrote a bit where Conan interviews Hitler, who comes on because he's embarrassed that he's being compared to Donald Trump,' she recalled, 'and they cast me as Hitler'. Silverman, a Jewish woman, was not an obvious choice for the part. 'They chose me and it's this way of thinking that makes Conan great again.' Turning to look at O'Brien, who has ginger hair, she added: 'I just really miss the days when you were America's only orange asshole.' The audience erupted in laughter. Silverman also referenced an episode of O'Brien's show in which she took a sideways photo of his mouth so that it resembled a vagina. She urged the audience to look under their seats for a photo of O'Brien's lips then alluded to Trump's notorious boast on Access Hollywood about touching women's genitals. 'You go ahead and leave those photos on your seat when you go. The guy who took over loves grabbing pussy.' Trump's seizure of the Kennedy Center in Washington has shaken the arts world. That change has come to the flagship venue was clear from the moment celebrities walked a red carpet opposite a wall mounted with gold-framed photos of Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and the vice-president and second lady, JD Vance and Usha Vance. It was the first signature event here since Trump last month appointed himself chair, pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein. He also dismissed board members appointed by Joe Biden and installed officials loyal to him. Trump handed leadership reins for the Kennedy Center to Richard Grenell, a close ally and former ambassador to Germany who is serving as envoy for special missions in the current administration. The new board, which includes the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Usha Vance, fired the center's president, Deborah Rutter. Trump posted on social media that those who were dismissed 'do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture'. Several artists, including the producers of musical Hamilton and actor and writer Issa Rae, have announced they are cancelling appearances at the venue. Ticket sales have also slumped. On Sunday night a series of comedians paying tribute to O'Brien did not pull their punches, with many targeting the institution's uncertain future and some implying that the prize itself would be unlikely to survive the Trump era. John Mulaney said: 'It's an honour to be here at the Kennedy Center or, as it will be known next week, the Roy Cohn Pavilion for Big, Strong Men Who Love Cats'. Cohn, a hardboiled lawyer, was Trump's mentor. Trump praised Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats during a visit to the arts complex last week. Mulaney added: 'Congratulations to my friend Conan O'Brien on receiving the 26th and final Mark Twain prize.' Will Ferrell described the event as a distraction because 'I'm supposed to be shutting down the Department of Education'. In a segment involving increasingly spicy chicken wings, late night host Stephen Colbert said: 'In light of the new leadership of the Kennedy Center, all of these are right wings and a couple of them are truly insane.' Praising O'Brien, Colbert continued: 'He never backs down. Case in point, when he accepted the Mark Twain prize, this was a very different place. Today they announced two board members: Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor' – referring to the former dictator of Syria and a cartoon villain. David Letterman, another giant of late night, acknowledged the iconoclastic mood in the auditorium when he said: 'I'm not a historian, but I believe that history will show in the history for all time, this will have been the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever.' O'Brien was chosen to replace David Letterman as host of NBC's Late Night show in 1993 despite no significant on-camera experience. He had spent the previous years as a writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons but went on to host Late Night for 16 years. He went on to host another talkshow on the cable station TBS, while launching successful podcasts and travel shows, and hosted this year's Oscars. Not known as a political satirist, O'Brien used his accepted speech on Sunday to make pointed comments about the current climate. 'Thanks to the people who invited me here a few months ago, Deborah Rutter and David Rubenstein,' he said. 'Honestly, I don't know why they're not here tonight. I lost wifi in January. I guess they're stuck in traffic. 'And a special thanks to all the beautiful people who have worked here at the Kennedy Center for years and who are worried about what the future might bring. My eternal thanks for their selfless devotion to the arts.' The audience stood, clapping and whooping. Standing beside the prize, a bust of 19th-century writer and humorist Twain, O'Brien went on to note: 'Twain hated bullies … He punched up, not down, and he deeply, deeply empathised with the weak. Twain was allergic to hypocrisy and he loathed racism. 'Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance.' He added: 'Above all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the world. He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed. Twain wrote, 'Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it.'' Again the audience roared its approval. But the night ended on a suitably lighthearted and zany note as performers dressed as Twain danced on stage while O'Brien and Adam Sandler played Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World. Previous winners of the Mark Twain prize include Kevin Hart, Sandler, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Carol Burnett. Sunday's show will be streamed on Netflix on 4 May.
The Independent
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Conan O'Brien receives Mark Twain award amid Kennedy Center controversy
Conan O'Brien is set to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where the backstage drama of the host institution may hang over the celebration. O'Brien, 61, was named the latest recipient of the award for lifetime achievement in comedy in mid-January, about three weeks before president Donald Trump upended the Kennedy Center by ousting the longtime president and the board chairman. Trump dismissed the board of directors and replaced them with loyalists, who then elected him as chairman. In announcing the changes, Trump posted on social media that the dismissed individuals "do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.' How that vision takes shape remains to be seen, but Trump has spoken about wanting to book more Broadway shows there and floated the idea of granting Kennedy Center Honors status to actor Sylvester Stallone and singer-songwriter Paul Anka. Into this maelstrom steps O'Brien, whose comedic persona has never been particularly political. The comic has always tended more towards goofiness and self-deprecation. But he has also leaned into sensitive societal issues at times. In 2011, O'Brien officiated a gay wedding live on his show, overseeing the marriage of his longtime costume designer Scott Cronick and his partner David Gorshein. O'Brien vaulted into the spotlight from near-total obscurity in 1993 when he was chosen to replace David Letterman as host of Late Night despite no significant on-camera experience. The former Harvard Lampoon editor had spent the previous years as a writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, appearing on camera only as an occasional background extra in SNL skits. He went on to host Late Night for 16 years, longer than any other host. O'Brien was later tapped to replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show, but that experiment ended in public failure. After seven months of declining ratings, NBC executives brought Leno back for a new show that would bump The Tonight Show back. O'Brien refused to accept the move, leading to a public spat that ended with a multimillion-dollar payout for O'Brien and his staff to exit the network in early 2010. O'Brien went on to host another talk show on the cable station TBS, while launching successful podcasts and travel shows. He is currently on a late-career elder statesman hot streak. His travel series, Conan O'Brien Must Go, sparked popular and critical acclaim, with a second season coming. His recent gig hosting the Academy Awards was so well received that the producers announced they are bringing him back next year. In the wake of Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center, several artists including the producers of Hamilton and actress and writer Issa Rae, announced they were cancelling appearances at the venue. Others have chosen to perform while making their sentiments known from the stage. Leftist comic W. Kamau Bell directly addressed the controversy in his performance just days after the shake-up. Earlier this month, cellist Erin Murphy ended her set with a performance of the Woody Guthrie protest anthem, 'All You Fascists Bound to Lose.' Mark Twain recipients typically receive tributes and testimonials from a star-studded collection of comics and celebrities. Given the nature of comedians, it seems likely that some of them on Sunday evening will address the issue of the institution's uncertain future. Other comedians receiving the lifetime achievement award include both Letterman and Leno, along with George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett Bill Murray and Dave Chappelle. The ceremony will be streamed on Netflix later this year at a yet-unannounced date.
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Jimmy Kimmel on release of JFK files: ‘Like Christmas morning for conspiracy theorists'
Late-night hosts talk the release of the JFK assassination files and Donald Trump triggering a constitutional crisis by ignoring a federal judge's ruling. 'After 60 years of books and movies and deep investigations, today was like Christmas morning for conspiracy theorists,' said Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening, after the long-awaited release of files pertaining to John F Kennedy's assassination in November 1963. 'Unfortunately Santa took forever to come down the chimney. All day we waited. Poor Oliver Stone had to endure a 12-hour erection today,' he joked. 'I guess they were trying to build anticipation? Or distract us from the 200 horrible things they did today. Or maybe they had to let the documents dry after fishing them out of Trump's toilet.' The documents – more than 80,000 pages of files – were finally released in the evening. 'Just to put that into perspective: that's almost 20 times longer than the entire Harry Potter book series,' said Kimmel. 'In other words, it's going to take me forever to read this to my kids tonight.' Meanwhile, Donald Trump spent most of Monday at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in DC, in his 'new and ridiculous capacity' as chair of the board after purging the board and installing loyalists. 'And now he's focused on the important work of making sure liberals don't ever set foot in the place,' Kimmel mused. Trump also floated the idea of hosting the Kennedy Center Honors this year because he's the 'king of ratings'. 'That would be so great – him hosting an awards show, me at home tweeting insults while he does it,' Kimmel, a former Oscars host, laughed. 'I mean, let's do this. Let's squeeze that load into a tuxedo, push him out on stage and let him do a 40-minute monologue about windmills and sharks.' Speaking to reporters, Trump promised: 'We're going to have a very big show. It's going to be a very big show. We have some surprises, some big surprises.' 'What's the surprise? They're honoring the construction worker from the Village People?' Kimmel joked. 'Goodbye Hamilton and Hello Donny, because the Kennedy Center is finally great again. Next up, the Holocaust Museum – very one-sided right now, but he'll fix that.' Trump wasn't about to let constitutional law stop him from deporting migrants to El Salvador And on The Daily Show, Jordan Klepper looked into Trump's efforts to deport hundreds of people under the name of 'suspected Venezuelan gang members' using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the government to deport people with little to no due process and was last used to inter Japanese Americans during the second world war. 'Why does Trump always have to pick the oldest, most racist laws to do what he wants to do?' Klepper wondered. 'It's not just that it's archaic. Invoking that law has some big problems.' For one, if you're deporting gang members but there's no due process, 'then you don't really know if you're deporting gang members,' he continued. 'You're just deporting people who you think look like gang members. And if you start deporting every shady looking guy with questionable tattoos, who's going to go to Jets games?' Second, the act is supposed to be used in times of war, and the US is not at war with Venezuela. On Saturday, a federal judge blocked the deportations – which the Trump administration ignored. 'I mean, if you had told me that Donald Trump would trigger a constitutional crisis just seven weeks into his term, I would've said: that is a lot later than I thought,' said Klepper.
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump revokes Secret Service detail for Joe Biden's children
Donald Trump said Monday he was ending 'immediately' the Secret Service protection details assigned to Democrat Joe Biden's adult children, which the former president had extended to July shortly before leaving office in January. Trump posted his intention on Truth Social after a reporter asked him about Hunter Biden's Secret Service detail: 'Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer,' Trump said. 'Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection. Likewise, Ashley Biden who has 13 agents will be taken off the list,' Trump added. There was no immediate reaction from the former president's office. Former presidents and their spouses receive lifelong Secret Service protection under federal law, but the protection afforded to their immediate families over the age of 16 ends when they leave office, though both Trump and Biden extended the details for their children for six months before leaving office. While touring the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday afternoon, a reporter asked Trump if he would revoke the protection for the former president's son. 'Well, we have done that with many. I would say if there are 18 with Hunter Biden, that will be something I'll look at this afternoon,' Trump said, who added this was the first time he heard about the matter. 'I'm going to take a look at that,' he said. This wouldn't be the first instance of Trump revoking security details, in January, he revoked the security details for Mike Pompeo, Trump's former secretary of state; Brian Hook, a former top aide; and John Bolton, his former national security adviser, within 72 hours of Trump's second term beginning. Trump's decision to remove their security details, which were believed to be provided by the state department, comes despite warnings from the Biden administration that both men faced ongoing threats from Iran due to actions they took following Trump's orders during his first term as president. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Under US protocol, senior officials other than former presidents and their spouses are not automatically guaranteed ongoing protection. But US intelligence agencies deemed Hook, Pompeo and Bolton to be under significant risk, which prompted the Biden administration to grant them protection. Marina Dunbar contributed reporting
