Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution by threatening to withdrawal federal funding from its programs that contain what he calls “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”
The president said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
His order instructs Vice President JD Vance to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian’s museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.
Meanwhile, the VP and Second Lady Usha Vance are visiting Greenland today, where they risk being shunned by the locals.
Elsewhere, Trump pulled Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be his U.N. ambassador over fears that a special election in her upstate New York district might endanger the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives, which is crucial to enacting the president’s agenda.
Stefanik appeared on Fox News shortly afterwards to insist she was “proud to be a team player.”
Elon Musk and members of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team were also on Fox to talk about their efforts to cut back government spending and staff numbers, with Musk dismissing his critics as “fraudsters.”
VOICES: Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian marks an astonishing new low
Sean O’Grady writes:
Donald Trump and his gang spend a good deal of time ranting about the obviously mythical “extreme radical-left Marxists” who’ve been running the United States for the past few decades. Yet the MAGA movement is just as extreme and dogmatic as any socialist cult – and is currently engaged in a “long march through the institutions” of America.
In Trump’s latest executive order, he targets the Smithsonian Institution, a semi-autonomous cultural and scientific organisation in Washington, DC, that has offended the thought police of the White House.
Read more:
Trump’s new mineral deal forces Ukraine to choose between becoming a US or Russian colony
Sam Kiley writes:
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Elon Musk appears to delete tweet promising checks to people who vote in Supreme Court election
Trump foresees good relationship with Canada despite tariff row
Trump was questioned on Friday regarding his call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has said that his country will be enacting retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.
The president said he would respond to such an action with additional large-scale tariffs of his own.
“We had a very, very good talk. He’s going through an election now, and we’ll see what happens,” said Trump.
“We’re going to end up with a very good relationship with Canada and a lot of the other countries,” he added.
“I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States,” Trump claimed.
University of Michigan shutters all of its DEI offices as Trump continues to exert influence over higher ed
Katie Hawkinson has the story:
PHOTOS: Vice president and Second Lady arrive in Greenland
Canadian government pays for ‘educational’ anti-tariff billboards in American cities
Despite Trump’s apparently friendly call with Mark Carney earlier, relations between the two neighboring countries remain poor enough for the Canadian government to be paying for anti-tariff billboards in American cities.
Gustaf Kilander has this report on the signs, which are going up everywhere from Arizona to Wisconsin to warn against the economic consequences of the president’s actions.
AP photographer who took iconic photo of Trump after assassination attempt fighting White House ban
The Associated Press (AP) journalist who took a renowned photo of Donald Trump after he emerged from an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, testified about the impact of the White House limiting the news wire service from presidential events.
“It’s hurting us big time,” Evan Vucci, the chief photographer for AP in Washington D.C., said on Thursday during a hearing in the case between AP and the White House.
“We’re basically dead in the water on major news stories.”
His testimony arrives weeks after Trump restricted AP’s access to key events and areas such as Air Force One and the Oval Office due to the news organization’s refusal to refer to the “Gulf of America” rather than the traditional “Gulf of Mexico.”
Ariana Baio has more.
Source: independent.co.uk