President Donald Trump is signaling his focus on making America’s universities less liberal and more conservative may now be waning, and he’s setting his sights on another target: America’s museums.

Museums across the country are too “woke” Trump declared on Tuesday, specifically calling out the Smithsonian Institution, and angrily blasting it for discussing “how bad Slavery was.”

The Smithsonian is an independent group of museums and research centers established by the federal government that does not answer to the President.

Although he did not mention it specifically, one of the museums within the Smithsonian is the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,'” Trump announced. “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.”

“We are not going to allow this to happen,” the President insisted, “and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made. This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the “HOTTEST” Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums.”

Constitutionally, no president has the power to dictate what museums across the country show, which stories they tell, or how they frame history. Other than signing a joint Congressional resolution, the President has little authority over who serves on the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents.

Critics blasted the President’s remarks.

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“It takes a single trip to any Smithsonian, including the American history museum and the African American history and culture museum, to know that the claim they feature ‘nothing about Success’ and ‘nothing about Brightness’ is categorically false,” wrote CNN senior reporter and fact-checker Daniel Dale.

“Slavery was very, very, very bad, and I hope that view continues to be reflected in our national museums,” declared The Washington Post’s James Hohmann.

“Trump supports slavery. Prove me wrong,” wrote U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). 

“Trump says the Smithsonian shouldn’t show America’s brutal past — things like centuries of slavery, Native displacement, Japanese American internment or forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women,” noted Democratic National Committee spokesperson Marcus W. Robinson. “Erasing history won’t erase truth. Another failure for his failed administration.”

Journalist Aaron Rupar mockingly asked, “why doesn’t the Smithsonian talk more about … the upsides of slavery?”

“Trump is angry that the Smithsonian Museum talks about how bad slavery was, which is a crucial part of American history,” observed political commentator and influencer Harry Sisson. “He’s now sending his attorneys after the museum. This is what dictators have done throughout history. Wake up, America.”

Former RNC chairman Michael Steele asked, “Ok @realDonaldTrump why don’t you tell us about the good side of slavery? You clearly have thoughts.”

Former Marine fighter pilot and former Democratic political candidate Amy McGrath added, “Teaching that slavery was bad in American history is now considered “woke.” Watch as all the republicans in office start to fall in line with this one.”

Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health wrote: “It’s not surprising that Trump thinks there was an upside to slavery considering his supporters still wave the flag of the people who went to war against the United States to protect it.”

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In a series of sharp criticisms, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the media for its coverage of President Donald Trump’s Alaska Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, claiming despite the goalposts that Trump himself had set but did not meet, it was “highly productive” and “successful.”

President Trump had said the goal of the Alaska talks was a ceasefire, and warned that there would be severe economic consequences for Russia if no ceasefire agreement was reached, as CBS News reported.

No ceasefire agreement came, and Trump declared that to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine would need to cede territory to Russia, despite Russia being the aggressor.

But Leavitt on Tuesday told a different story, attacking what she claimed was “the media’s negative and downright false coverage of President Trump and his foreign policy accomplishments.”

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“Initially, the media ridiculously claimed that President Trump was somehow beholden to Russia for even agreeing to have a face-to-face discussion with President Putin inside of the United States,” she declared. “The media said President Trump was making a grave mistake by, quote, ‘legitimizing Putin.’ They were aghast that President Trump would treat another world leader like a world leader.”

Indeed, many were angered that Putin, who is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, was invited onto U.S. soil and then given the red carpet treatment.

“We also saw yesterday the president of Ukraine and all of the other major leaders of Europe fly across the Atlantic Ocean to meet President Trump at the White House because of the progress that was made, and that if you ask the media failed meeting, but it was not,” she insisted.

Leavitt repeated her claim that the European leaders flew across the ocean on just 48 hours notice because of all the progress that had been made by President Trump.

“In fact, there was so much progress in the readout that was given to these European leaders immediately following his meeting with President Putin that every single one of them got on a plane, 48 hours later, and flew to the United States of America,” Leavitt told reporters.

Seven European leaders attended the White House meeting with President Trump and President Zelenskyy, but some reports suggested it was to show unity and support, not because of any achievements that came from Friday’s meeting.

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“The leaders personally came to support Ukraine and to discuss everything that will bring us closer to real peace, to a reliable security architecture that will protect Ukraine and all of Europe,” President Zelenskyy wrote on Monday night.

“The leaders showed unity, with Zelenskyy and European allies stressing the need for security guarantees in an eventual peace deal to deter Russia from invading in the future,” CBS News reported.

Critics disagreed with Leavitt’s claims.

Veteran journalist Michael McGough labeled Levitt’s remarks the “Spin of the day.”

“This is pure cult spin,” declared Wall Street banker Evaristus Odinikaeze. “European leaders didn’t jump on planes to D.C. because they were inspired by Trump’s ‘progress’ with Putin, they came because they were alarmed and terrified that he was about to sell Ukraine down the river. Leavitt is turning a fire alarm into a fanfare. When allies rush across the Atlantic in 48 hours, it’s not to celebrate, it’s to stop a disaster. In fact, the Finnish President Alex Stubb alluded to this when he told Trump the Finnish history after the Second World War.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Leavitt: One thing that has not changed is the media’s negative and downright false coverage of President Trump and his foreign policy accomplishments. They said he was making a mistake by legitimizing Putin. They were aghast that he would treat another world leader like a world… pic.twitter.com/qdGmEIG8hB

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 19, 2025

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Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump is blaming Ukraine for being attacked by Russia in President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against the sovereign nation.

In a rambling and wide-ranging “Fox & Friends” interview on Tuesday, the President covered a lot of ground, including declaring that it would be unfair to Russia to allow Ukraine to become a part of NATO.

“It can’t be NATO because that’s just not something that would ever ever happen. He couldn’t. They couldn’t do that. If you were Russia, who would want to have your enemy, your opponent, sitting on your line? You don’t do that,” Trump said.

Trump then falsely claimed, “It was always thought that Ukraine was a, sort of a buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe — and it was, it was a big, wide buffer — everything worked out well until Biden got involved.”

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Ukraine was promised future entry into NATO at an undetermined date, back in 2008. Finland borders Russia and is a member of NATO. Trump also did not say why there needed to be a “buffer” between Russia and Europe.

Trump also expressed that, he believes, Ukraine will have to give up land to Russia.

Asked what the European leaders thought about “land swaps,” which may or may not include Russia giving back land it took illegally, but no actual Russian land, Trump replied: “While they understand — look, everybody can play cute and this and that, but, you know, Ukraine’s gonna get their life back.”

“They’re gonna stop having people killed all over the place, and they’re gonna get a lot of land,” he claimed, not mentioning that that land belongs to Ukraine.

Then he accused Ukraine of attacking Russia, and suggested they were the provocateur.

“But this was a war, and Russia is a powerful military nation, you know, whether people like it or not, it’s a powerful nation,” Trump said. “It’s a much bigger nation.”

“It’s not a war that should have been started. You don’t do that. You don’t take on a nation that’s ten times your size and you know, military experts — look, look, here, if it wasn’t for the greatest military equipment. We make the greatest military equipment in the world, and we gave them— So, you know, whatever they took — probably a lot of money, too — but they had tremendous, you know, they had the Patriot missile, which is the best in the world.”

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“All the equipment, we make the best equipment in the world by far. Everyone else is like, nothing. So we gave them a lot of equipment. Now, with that said, the Ukrainian soldiers were brave as hell. Cause’s fighting a force that’s much, much bigger. Superior, much more powerful.”

Critics denounced Trump’s claims.

“For the umpteenth time, Trump blames Ukraine for starting the war. Trump can never be trusted. He works for Putin,” wrote podcaster and former GOP congressman Joe Walsh.

“Really crystallizesTrump’s world view that bigger nations can bully smaller ones just because they can,” wrote communications expert Eric Koch.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump: “Russia is a powerful military nation whether people like it or not. It’s a much bigger nation. It’s not a war that should have been started, you don’t do that. You don’t take on a nation that’s 10x your size.” pic.twitter.com/0kM0SpJlZr

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) August 19, 2025

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Image via Reuters