Smithsonian exhibit on pop culture faces Trump-ordered bias probe over social-justice focus
The Smithsonian’s Entertainment Nation exhibit, curated by scholars whose work emphasizes race, gender and social-justice issues, has been targeted after President Donald Trump ordered a review and the White House accused it of ideological bias.
The Smithsonian’s Entertainment Nation exhibition, opened in December 2022 at the National Museum of American History, uses popular-culture artifacts to examine how entertainment shapes American life. All seven curators—John Troutman, Kenneth Cohen, Krystal Klingenberg, Ryan Lintelman, Theodore Gonzalves, Ashley Mayor and Eric Jentsch—have built their scholarly and public work around themes of racial injustice, gender inequality, sexuality and other progressive causes.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March 2025 directing a review of Smithsonian displays, leading to a 162-page White House report that accused the exhibit of ideological bias and cited specific language that it said portrayed the United States negatively. The report highlighted a placard linking Mickey Mouse to blackface traditions and another calling Alexander Hamilton “flawed,” prompting a senior White House official to argue that taxpayer money should not fund “one-sided, divisive political narratives.”
Curators have defended the approach, saying the exhibit uses entertainment as a lens for exploring social movements, citing items such as a Handmaid’s Tale costume acquired for its relevance to feminist protest. The dispute has intensified amid a congressional hearing scrutinizing the museum’s programming.
Why it matters
It shows how cultural institutions can become battlegrounds for political disputes over historical interpretation.
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