April 25 (UPI) — U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wants Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to reject an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks an end to the “influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” at the Smithsonian.
Roberts sits on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents and serves as chancellor of the Smithsonian. The next board meeting of the Smithsonian, which includes Vice President JD Vance, is scheduled for June 9.
On March 27, Trump signed the executive order that targets the Smithsonian Institution.
“I write to express my strong opposition to President Trump’s Proclamation issued on March 27, which preposterously purports to restore ‘truth and sanity to American history’ by censoring ‘improper ideology’ at the Smithsonian Institution,” Jeffries, of California, wrote.
“It is imperative that you, along with your fellow Regents, continue the storied legacy of the Smithsonian that tells the American story honestly and completely. President Trump’s proclamation, which seeks to whitewash our history, is cowardly and unpatriotic. It must fail.”
The Smithsonian Institution includes 21 museums, 14 education and research centers and the National Zoo. The Smithsonian, founded in 1846, is the largest museum, education and research complex in the world, according to its website.
The Smithsonian contains an estimated 157 million objects, works of art and specimens in more than 2.7 million feet indoors in Washington. There are additional buildings in Maryland, New York and Virginia.
“The Smithsonian attracts tens of millions of visitors a year and works with the finest subject matter experts in virtually every field,” Jeffries wrote. “The fact that the Proclamation prominently singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture speaks volumes about Donald Trump’s actual motivation. To be clear: Black history is American history. It cannot and will not be erased.”
Trump also mentioned the forthcoming American Women’s History Museum in his executive order as “celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports.”
The order directed Vance to work to eliminate those policies and “improper ideology” from the institution’s facilities.
In recent years, the Smithsonian, according to the executive order, has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” that has “promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
“History is replete with dangerous efforts to manipulate cultural and historical narratives in order to consolidate power, including during twentieth-century regimes like those in the Soviet Union and 1930s Germany,” the top Democrat in the House wrote.
“That is not America. I strongly urge you to reject the Proclamation targeting the Smithsonian and to uphold the 175-year tradition that has made the Institution the preeminent museum, educational and cultural system in the world.”
Trump has signed other executive orders to remove so-called liberal ideas and representations from federal government institutions.
In February, the president targeted the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He appointed himself as chairman, ousted the executive director and named several new board members.
On March 14, Trump signed an executive order late that calls for the elimination of the United States Agency for Global Media, which oversees the international state media network funded by the U.S. federal government. That includes the 83-year-old Voice of America.
Trump also has targeted for reduction the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is responsible for issuing grants to libraries and museums.