reviewed

PA Media

‘Real concerns’

The White House has ordered an extensive review of the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions in advance of next year’s 250th anniversary of the United States, with the goal of aligning the institution’s content with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of US history.

In a letter sent on Tuesday to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, the White House laid out in detail the steps it expects the organisation to take so that museum content can be reviewed for a focus on “Americanism”.

The federal government will review public-facing museum content, such as social media, exhibition text and educational materials, to “assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals”, the letter said.

“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” the letter added.

In a statement responding to the letter, the Smithsonian said it remained committed to “scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and the accurate, factual presentation of history”.

“We are reviewing the letter with this commitment in mind and will continue to collaborate constructively with the White House, Congress, and our governing Board of Regents,” it said.

The White House said that the review is in line with the Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History Executive Order, which Trump signed in March.

At the time, the Congressional Black Caucus, made up of Black members of the US Congress, described the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict the Smithsonian Institution as “whitewashing our nation’s history”.

“Donald Trump’s idea that the National Museum of African American History and Culture is guilty of distorting our nation’s history or painting our ‘founding principles’ in a ‘negative light’ is patently ridiculous,” the caucus said in a statement.

“Let’s be clear, Black history is American history. Any rhetoric that opposes this notion is not only factually incorrect but blatantly racist,” the caucus said.

“It is the Trump Administration that bans books, words, and phrases that do not fit their narrative. It is the Trump Administration that wants to erase and retell our history,” the caucus added.

The White House said the review would initially focus on the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

The museums under review are all located in Washington, DC, where the president this week ordered the deployment of the US National Guard to tackle a purported crime wave that city officials in the capital have refuted.

The museums all offer free admission and attract millions of visitors each year, with the National Museum of American History alone recording 2 million in-person visits in 2024.

The Smithsonian has repeatedly denied allegations that it has changed or removed exhibit details in response to pressure from the Trump administration. Recently, the institution removed references to Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit on the US presidency. The Smithsonian Institution said that a placard was removed for reasons related to consistency and because it “blocked the view of the objects inside its case”.

“We were not asked by any Administration or other government officials to remove content from the exhibit,” the Institution said.

The Smithsonian Institution, which runs 21 museums and the National Zoo, said at the time that the impeachment section of the museum would be updated in the coming weeks to “reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history”.

Trump was impeached in January 2021, for “incitement of insurrection”, after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The amount of time off and pay new parents can get after the birth of a child will be looked at in a “landmark” review, the government says.

Ministers said they wanted to modernise the system across paternity, maternity and shared parental leave, which campaigners said had been “overlooked for years”.

Campaign group The Dad Shift called the review the “best chance in a generation to improve the system and make sure it actually works for working families”.

A committee of MPs recently called the UK’s parental leave system “one of the worst in the developed world” with “fundamental flaws”.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said jobs would be lost if more costs were “piled on to employers”.

June’s report by the Women and Equalities Committee said “bold” action was needed to address those flaws, but warned that any changes would require significant investment.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told BBC Breakfast the current system is “really confusing”, with eight different types of parental leave available, and “is not particularly generous or supportive compared to other countries”.

Reynolds said one in three fathers takes no paternity leave and “hardly anyone” takes shared parental leave.

He said the review – which is expected to take 18 months – is needed because the parental leave system has not been reformed in decades, during which time both working habits and families have changed.

The government’s review will look at statutory leave, which is the minimum amount employers have to provide by law and is funded by the government. Some companies choose to top this up for their employees using their own money.

Statutory maternity leave allows most new mums and birthing parents to take up to 52 weeks off work.

Statutory maternity pay is paid for up to 39 weeks, providing 90% of a person’s average weekly earnings – before tax – for the first six weeks.

The following 33 weeks pays either £187.18 per week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings again – whichever is lower.

Mums are ineligible for statutory maternity pay if they are self-employed or earn less than £125 a week.

Statutory paternity leave, which was introduced in 2003, allows most new fathers and second parents in the UK to take up to two weeks off work.

It applies to all partners, regardless of gender, after the birth, surrogacy or adoption of a baby. Like with maternity leave, those who are eligible receive £187.18 a week or 90% of their average earnings, whichever is lower, for those two weeks.

That works out as less than 50% of the National Living Wage – the minimum amount that employers are legally required to pay anyone aged 21 and over.

Fathers cannot receive statutory paternity leave and pay if they are self-employed or earn less than £125 a week.

Shared parental leave was introduced in 2014 and allows parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay after the birth or adoption of a child.

Announcing its review of the whole parental leave system, the government acknowledged that take-up of shared parental leave was very low, as well as the fact that one in three dads do not take paternity leave because they cannot afford to.

George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift campaign, said paternity leave was “groundbreaking” when it was introduced by the last Labour government, but by remaining unchanged since then had become the “least generous in Europe”.

He said he was “delighted” with the review and “ambitious for the change to come”.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: “If you’ve no job in the first place it doesn’t matter how much family leave you get.”

Rachel Grocott, chief executive of the Pregnant Then Screwed charity, said improving parental leave overall would help to close the gender pay gap and give children the best start in life, adding that investing in the system was a “no-brainer”.