I read the White House’s Smithsonian report so you don’t have to

A new White House report tries to demonstrate how “ideological capture” at the National Museum of American History “Erases Our Heritage.” And at every turn, it proves the opposite, while scrubbing American history of everything that doesn’t fit officials’ feel-good narrative of a country only incidentally marred by imperfections, all of which are safely in our past. The report often doesn’t even bother to engage with many of the claims it ridicules or takes them as self-evident proof that the Smithsonian is misrepresenting history. Just follow the footnotes, and you quickly realize this is a relentlessly tendentious piece of trash, culture critic Philip Kennicott says. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: X: https://x.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonpost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/ Threads: https://www.threads.com/@washingtonpost Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com