MSNBC’s Jen Psaki Torpedoes Trump With History Gaffes Amid Museum Push
MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki attacked President Donald Trump with a barrage of historical gaffes set to comical sound effects amid his push to rewrite Smithsonian exhibits.
President Donald Trump has spent years defending Confederate monuments and pushing against problematic aspects of U.S. history, including widely-mocked purges of information deemed to be “DEI”-related. Most recently, he’s been leaning on Smithsonian museums to review and revise their content to reflect Trump’s views.
On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Psaki began the show with a lengthy commentary on Trump’s cultural barrage, including a package of history gaffes complete with a buzzer and corrected answers:
JEN PSAKI, MSNBC ANCHOR: Here’s the headline from The Wall Street Journal yesterday. Here’s what it said, quote, White House to vet Smithsonian Museums to fit Trump’s historical vision. The White House plans to conduct a far reaching review of Smithsonian Museum exhibitions, materials and operations to ensure the museums align with President Trump’s interpretation of American history.
Now that news is concerning for a whole lot of reasons, and I will certainly get to them. But for starters, Donald Trump is not exactly what I would call an expert when it comes to American history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge. Our army manned the air.
It rammed the ramparts. It took over the airports.
[BUZZER SOUND EFFECT]
TEXT: There were no airports in 1775
Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.
[BUZZER SOUND EFFECT]
TEXT: Frederick Douglass died in 1895.
Our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, great president. Most people don’t even know he was a Republican, right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don’t know that.
[BUZZER SOUND EFFECT]
TEXT: Yes, they do know that.
People don’t ask that question. But why was there the Civil War? Why couldn’t — why could that one not have been worked out?
[BUZZER SOUND EFFECT]
TEXT: Because of slavery
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
PSAKI: I mean, and there’s many more examples where that came from. That guy was not mastering history 101. It’s not exactly Doris Kearns Goodwin.
What is really concerning here is how Trump plans to change our national museums. I mean, in a letter to the Smithsonian Institute, the Trump administration said it will use this takeover to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals. And they make clear that museums will be required to implement what they euphemistically call content corrections wherever they deem necessary.
And to state the obvious here. And that in part means rewriting history so that it reflects better on Trump than the reality. We’ve already gotten a taste of what some of those content corrections might look like.
I mean, remember last month, the Smithsonian Museum quietly removed references to Trump from their exhibit on presidential impeachments. The Smithsonian denied that this action was taken at the behest of Trump, the only American president to ever be impeached twice.
And after the change was reported, the museum put the section on Trump’s impeachments back in the display, but not without removing prior references to Trump’s repeated false statements or how he encouraged imminent lawless action at the Capitol, both of which he did and both of which led to his second impeachment.
So, the historical record of Trump’s lawlessness is already being sanitized in our nation’s museums. And now Trump wants to change the rest of the Smithsonian’s exhibits to align with his personal interpretation of American history, which may include deleting people and events that aren’t centered around white people, of course.
Watch above via MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki.
