U.S. parks and museums are becoming the latest battleground in the nation’s culture wars as President Trump seeks changes to the way national parks and the Smithsonian tell the story of America.

The Trump administration has targeted exhibitions and programs that touch on everything from slavery and the Civil Rights Movement to transgender rights and disabilities issues.

Trump last week in a social media post said that museums in particular were “woke.”

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,'” he wrote on Truth Social. “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

Those supporting Trump’s actions say they will restore national pride, but critics in the arts and parks, as well as a number of Democrats, argue they whitewash history and do not tell people the full story.

“When you start erasing or sanitizing our history so that it is not offensive, so that all the bad bits are taken out to make people feel comfortable, we lose the ability to think critically,” said Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources and government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association.

The White House last week announced a list of 20 Smithsonian exhibits and displays it found objectionable, including the flying of a pride flag at multiple Smithsonian campuses, content featuring “animated Latinos and Latinas with disabilities” at the National Museum of the American Latino and a commissioned stop-motion animation of the career of infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci that was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery.

The White House previously announced a review to ensure “alignment” at the Smithsonian museums with Trump’s “directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

The Smithsonian Institution is a museum, education and research institution made up of 21 museums and other facilities. It was established by Congress in 1846 as a public-private partnership. It receives about 62 percent of its funding from the federal government, including funding through bipartisan congressional appropriations bills.

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