White House Official Says ‘Honest’ Slavery Discussion Must Include ‘Hope and Progress’

An adviser to President Donald Trump said that while slavery was “horrible,” no serious discussion of it is complete without the inclusion of “hope and progress.”

The Trump administration is trying to pressure the Smithsonian Institution into ensuring its exhibits are in “alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” This week, Trump complained that the Smithsonian focused too much on “how bad Slavery was.”

Lindsey Halligan, a special adviser to the president, appeared on Newsmax on Thursday and echoed that sentiment.

“It’s not about whitewashing,” she insisted. “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. And I think we need to be focusing on the progress that we’ve made since then. And we need to stop focusing so much on the lack of progress.”

Halligan said the country needs “to keep moving forward” and pointed to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the U.S. next year.

“And we’re hoping that the Smithsonian and D.C. is beautiful and amazing, and a place that all Americans wanna come visit during that time,” she added. “And so, I’m really excited about it.”

Host Marc Lotter followed up by asking Halligan if the administration would have enough time to review the changes it demanded the Smithsonian make ahead of the semiquincentennial.

“Yeah, according to our letter, we’ve given the Smithsonian 30 days to send us everything,” Halligan replied. “We wanna do a complete and total review, and hopefully everything will be reviewed and fixed in the next two to three months.”

Watch above via Newsmax.