Claims that a White House official in charge of U.S. President Donald Trump's mandate to review exhibits within the Smithsonian Institution said, "You can't really talk about slavery honestly unless you also talk about hope and progress," circulated online in August 2025.

Special Assistant to the President Lindsey Halligan said the Smithsonian museums had become "laboratories for political experiments."

It's not about whitewashing, it's all about full context, so while slavery is obviously a horrible aspect of our nation's history, you can't really talk about slavery honestly unless you also talk about hope and progress.

President Donald Trump has called for a review of Smithsonian museums, saying they focus too much on "how bad Slavery was".