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 Trump’s adviser leading a review of Smithsonian museums’ content defended the move as shifting the focus to progress, rather than dwelling on past mistakes, and argued that

Is it whitewashing? It's not a museum's job to promote hope, thoughts and prayers. They exhibit the past. Trying to turn them into jingoistic happy meals is not the object. But Trump and his white supremacist base must re-write history so they don't feel bad.

The Trump administration has escalated its pressure campaign on the nation’s largest museum network, demanding changes to what it calls “divisive” content.

The White House published a list of Smithsonian exhibits, programming and artwork it considered objectionable on Thursday, one week after announcing that eight of the institution’s museums must submit their current wall text and future exhibition plans for a comprehensive review.

CNN political commentator Shermichael Singleton reacts to President Donald Trump’s claims museums were too focused on highlighting negative aspects of American history, including “how bad slavery was.