In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order focused on the Smithsonian Institution that started as follows: “In the past decade, Americans have witnessed a joint and widespread effort to rewrite the history of our nation, where objective facts are replaced by a deformed story driven by ideology.”
Despite the high -quality rhetoric, many were worried that the order was a thin veiled effort instead to rewrite history to the taste of Trump. The order, for example, mentioned the desire to remove “incorrect ideology” – an ominous expression, if there was ever one – of properties such as the Smithsonian.
Those worries were certainly strengthened this week. We have learned that some historical information that has recently disappeared from the Smithsonian are an objective history that Trump really does not like: a reference to his two accusations.
The Smithsonian said that a board with the information was removed from the National Museum of American History last month after an assessment of the 'Legacy Content' from the museum. The board was placed in September 2021 for an existing accusation exhibition.
Just to control this house: the exhibition itself is about 'limits of presidential power'. And suddenly examples of the biggest efforts of the congress to limit Trumps had disappeared.
The exhibition for deposition in the “Limits of Presidential Power” section in “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden” exhibition in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian, after the museum had removed explicit reference to President Donald Trump. – Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
It was not immediately clear that the board was removed on the basis of the executive order of Trump. The Washington Post, who broke the news, reported that a source said that the content review came after the pressure of the White House to remove a director of the Art Museum.
In other words, we do not know all the details of exactly how this went – including whether the removal was specifically requested, or that museum officers decided that it could be a good way to calm Trump in the midst of pressure. The Smithsonian said on Saturday in a statement that “it was not requested by an administration” or government official to remove content and that an updated version of the exhibition will ultimately state all seduction efforts, including Trump's.
But it's all beautiful Orwellian. And it's not the only example.
Trump has always been rather flagrant about his efforts to rewrite history with self -sufficient lies and rather shamelessly putting pressure on the people who would serve as impartial referees of the current story. But this week things brought to a different level.
On Friday, Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This came only a few hours after that Bureau Trump had delivered a number of very bad news: the worst non-pattern tasks of three months since 2010.
Some Trump bondmen have tried to set a good face here, with the argument that the removal of Dr. Erika Mcentarfer was justified because major revisions in the task numbers have betrayed sloppy work. But as he did with the firing of the then FBI director James B. Comey eight years ago, Trump quickly undermined that. He told Newsmax that “we fired her because we didn't believe the figures today.”
Insofar as Trump has drawn up an actual evidence-based case for firing Mceltarfer, that proof was conspiracy and wrong, as Daniel Dale of CNN documented Friday.
And even some Republican senators acknowledged that this could be exactly as draconic and self -service if it seemed. Senator Cynthia Lummis van Wyoming, for example, called it “a bit boisterous” to fire the BLS head before he found out if the new songs were actually wrong.
“It is not the fault of the statistician if the figures are accurate and that they are not what the president had hoped for,” said Lummis, who is not often a Trump critic.
Recruiters and job seekers speak during a job fair organized by the Cook County Government to support federal employees in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday 26 June 2025. – Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina added that if Trump “just did because they didn't like the numbers, they should grow up.”
Sens. Rand Paul van Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska were both worried that Trump's move would make it so that people cannot trust the data that the administration releases.
And that is the real problem here. It is not so much that Trump seems to dismiss someone in retaliation; It is the message that it sends to everyone in a similar position. The message is that you may want the data and those conclusions to be to the taste of Trump, or else.
It is a recipe to get a lot of unreliable data and conclusions. And even to the extent that information is solid, it will sow suspicions about the books that have been cooked – both among ordinary Americans and, crucial, among those who make important decisions that influence the economy. What happens if the next job report is great? Will the markets believe it?
We have certainly seen a lot of rather blunt Trump efforts to control such stories and rather rewrite history. A sample:
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He made an effort for a year to make January 6, defended the Capitol in his name to be sympathetic patriots, and even called them 'hostages' before she fells them.
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The efforts of his administration to manage the diversity, fairness and inclusion of the government often provided things that only celebrated black people and women.
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He and his administration have sometimes taken rather vague views of the freedom of expression of those who do not agree with them, including talking about mere protests – ie not necessary violence – as 'illegal'. At one point a loyalty American lawyer threatened to pursue people who criticized the then Trump Ally Elon Musk, even for non-criminal behavior.
Everything reinforces the idea that Trump is trying to consolidate power by pursuing rather harsh and flagrant tactics.
But if there is a week that really drove home how blunt these efforts can be, it might be this one.
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