Jonathan Lemire Warns Trump is ‘Rewriting History’ With MAGA-Aligned Smithsonian Push

Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire took an aside to condemn President Donald Trump’s move to assert sweeping oversight over exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution as “dangerous” and “not what a healthy democracy does.”

The remarks come after Trump ordered a full review of exhibitions to ensure they reflect “unity, progress, and enduring values” ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.

In a letter posted on the White House website, officials informed Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch that museums have 120 days to replace any “divisive or ideologically driven” language with “unifying, historically accurate” descriptions.

This comes following Trump’s March executive order, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which aims to eliminate what the president called “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” from the national museum network.

As the Morning Joe team commented on the reports, Lemire drew viewers aside to deliver a scathing takedown and warning:

Let’s be blunt. This is really bad and really, really dangerous. A nation needs to know its history. It has to be honest about its history to learn from it, to honor it, and also to then grow and improve for the present and future. There’s no way that rewriting history to fit one president’s vision is good for a nation’s health or good for a nation’s democracy.

We’ve already seen the Smithsonian change its impeachment exhibit to eliminate the references to President Trump; they’ve been restored, modified, edited, sanitized some, but at least they’re back. But now it seems like that’s just the first step to a sweeping revisiting of American history through the Smithsonian’s lens.

We already know a little bit about how this president views this issue and his administration. We’re seeing Confederate monuments being restored to parks in Washington. We’re seeing military bases being renamed after Confederate generals, or in one case, renamed back to the same name – Bragg – as a Confederate general.

This is not what a healthy democracy does. You can be patriotic, you can love your country – we have the 250th anniversary next year, and certainly President Trump and his team are already gearing up to celebrate that – some of that is good. But to honor a nation’s history, you have to be honest about it, and to rewash it, to sanitize it, to whitewash it, to not be honest about it is wrong.

Watch above via MSNBC.