AMERICA IS A FASCIST STATE
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxismfascism is at the far right wing of the traditional left–right spectrum.
AMERICA IS A ROGUE STATE
A nation or state regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations.
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxismfascism is at the far right wing of the traditional left–right spectrum.
AMERICA IS A ROGUE STATE
A nation or state regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations.
Reading “A Talk to Teachers”
Eddie
March 31, 2025
Substack
I have been thinking about Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Smithsonian and, particularly, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is part of a broader assault on how Americans might understand the past and how we might frame our current troubles. My thoughts joined with the outrage I felt with the kidnapping of Rumeysa Ozturk, the PhD student at Tufts University. She was arrested by ICE agents in street clothes, ostensibly, for writing an op-ed for the student newspaper at the University. There she invoked the words of James Baldwin in his essay, “A Talk to Teachers,” as she urged Tufts to take seriously resolutions about the horrors in Gaza.
The great author and civil rights champion James Baldwin once wrote: “The paradox of education is precisely this: that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which [they are] being educated.” As an educator, President Kumar should embrace efforts by students to evaluate “diverse and sometimes contradictory ideas and opinions.”
These are the words, according to Marco Rubio, of someone who poses a threat to U.S. foreign policy and who apparently embraces the ideals of Hamas. Utter nonsense. But Ozturk’s invocation of Baldwin (alongside my rage about the executive order) got me thinking and sent me back to the essay, “A Talk to Teachers.”
In October of 1963, James Baldwin published in The Saturday Review, “The Negro Child—His Self-Image.” The essay would be retitled “A Talk to Teachers” in the edited volume of Baldwin’s nonfiction writings, The Price of the Ticket. Baldwin engaged in a kind of preliminary exploration of the tension between the aim of education to socialize our children in the ways of our society and the need to equip them with the tools to critically assess it. Baldwin writes:
The purpose of education is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then to learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.
Our children, Baldwin suggests, experience a certain kind of dissonance in this regard. They grow up in a society that denies them dignity and standing – where a generalized disregard characterizes the society’s view of them. To develop a critical stance towards this society and its views of Black and Brown people is to risk death.
What is asked, demanded really, is consent to a host of assumptions about who you are and to the structures that give those assumptions life. As Baldwin put it,
[I]t becomes thoroughly clear, at least to me, that any Negro who is born in this country and undergoes the American educational system runs the risk of becoming schizophrenic. On the one hand, he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes, and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war…. He is part of a country in which anyone can become president, and so forth. But on the other hand, he is also assured by his country and his countrymen that he has never contributed anything to civilization—that his past is nothing more than a record of humiliations gladly endured.
It is against this reality, in the full light of forces aimed at reproducing hierarchies for exploitation, that the Black and Brown child must forge a self.
[A Native Son is a reader-supported publication.]
She must find the means to say no to a society that, at every turn, seeks to condemn her to a certain station in life. And for Baldwin, through his own autobiographical example, to refuse this sentence amounts to an extraordinary act of the will. One decides, and he doesn’t give us much by way of how this happens, to say “no” to it all. To refuse the categorization. And, it is at that point of refusal that one enters into battle against one’s society. As he wrote, “So where we are now is that a whole country of people believe I’m a nigger, and I don’t, and the battle’s on!”
One of the paradoxes of American education, as Ozturk notes, is that precisely at the point “when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society.” Baldwin goes on to say that “it is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person. And on the basis of the evidence – moral and political evidence – one is compelled to say this is a backward society.”
With this insight, Baldwin commends a form of education aimed at undermining the legends that secure this country’s innocence.
I would teach him that there are currently very few standards in this country which are worth a man’s respect. That it is up to him to begin to change these standards for the sake of the life and health of the country I would try to make him know that just as American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it, so is the world larger, more daring, more beautiful and more terrible, but principally larger—and that it belongs to him.
Baldwin goes on to say, “I would teach him that he doesn’t have to be bound by the expediencies of any given administration, any given policy, any given morality; that he has the right and the necessity to examine everything.” This applies not only to the students in the classroom, but to all of us. Conformity stifles the soul. We too must break loose from the assumptions and histories that reconcile us to the world as it is. In the end, we must have an idea of education for all children that will rid us of this paradox.
In his essay, “The Uses of the Blues,” Baldwin clearly states what he takes to be the “Negro Problem.”
I’m talking about what happens to you if, having barely escaped suicide, or death, or madness, or yourself, you watch your children growing up and no matter what you do, not matter what you do, you are powerless, you are really powerless, against the force of the world that is out to tell your child that he has no right to be alive. And no amount of liberal jargon, and no amount of talk about how well and how far we have progressed, does anything to soften or to point out any solution to this dilemma. In every generation, ever since Negroes have been here, every Negro mother and father has had to face that child and try to create in that child some way of surviving this particular world, some way to make the child who will be despised not despise himself. I don’t know what ‘the Negro Problem’ means to white people, but this is what it means to Negroes.
Here Baldwin foregrounds the fact of growing up, of coming of age, in a place that denies you standing, that distorts your sense of self and arrests your capacities. And it is with great effort and risk that one takes up the task of self-creation in such a world.
The daunting challenge of seeking a higher self in a world that denies one standing gives new meaning to W.E.B. Du Bois’s cry of “two unreconciled strivings.” For African Americans, as Langston Hughes said, life ain’t been no crystal stair. To reach for this higher self across the proverbial tracks, to do so amid the clamoring calls to cast away America’s history and while dark forces literally snatch people from our sight, requires something more fundamental; it requires a confrontation with the reality of this place.
In these dark and trying times we must muster the democratic hope and courage to challenge this nation and insist that we educate our children, ourselves really, into the habits of democracy so that we all can be born again. If this is to happen, as Ozturk urged us to do, we must remember Baldwin’s words in his talk to teachers: that “America is not the world and if America is going to become a nation, she must find a way—and this child must help her to find a way to use the tremendous potential and tremendous energy which this child represents. If this country does not find a way to use that energy, it will be destroyed by that energy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/us/students-trump-ice-detention.html
Eddie
March 31, 2025
Substack
I have been thinking about Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Smithsonian and, particularly, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is part of a broader assault on how Americans might understand the past and how we might frame our current troubles. My thoughts joined with the outrage I felt with the kidnapping of Rumeysa Ozturk, the PhD student at Tufts University. She was arrested by ICE agents in street clothes, ostensibly, for writing an op-ed for the student newspaper at the University. There she invoked the words of James Baldwin in his essay, “A Talk to Teachers,” as she urged Tufts to take seriously resolutions about the horrors in Gaza.
The great author and civil rights champion James Baldwin once wrote: “The paradox of education is precisely this: that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which [they are] being educated.” As an educator, President Kumar should embrace efforts by students to evaluate “diverse and sometimes contradictory ideas and opinions.”
These are the words, according to Marco Rubio, of someone who poses a threat to U.S. foreign policy and who apparently embraces the ideals of Hamas. Utter nonsense. But Ozturk’s invocation of Baldwin (alongside my rage about the executive order) got me thinking and sent me back to the essay, “A Talk to Teachers.”
In October of 1963, James Baldwin published in The Saturday Review, “The Negro Child—His Self-Image.” The essay would be retitled “A Talk to Teachers” in the edited volume of Baldwin’s nonfiction writings, The Price of the Ticket. Baldwin engaged in a kind of preliminary exploration of the tension between the aim of education to socialize our children in the ways of our society and the need to equip them with the tools to critically assess it. Baldwin writes:
The purpose of education is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then to learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.
Our children, Baldwin suggests, experience a certain kind of dissonance in this regard. They grow up in a society that denies them dignity and standing – where a generalized disregard characterizes the society’s view of them. To develop a critical stance towards this society and its views of Black and Brown people is to risk death.
What is asked, demanded really, is consent to a host of assumptions about who you are and to the structures that give those assumptions life. As Baldwin put it,
[I]t becomes thoroughly clear, at least to me, that any Negro who is born in this country and undergoes the American educational system runs the risk of becoming schizophrenic. On the one hand, he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes, and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war…. He is part of a country in which anyone can become president, and so forth. But on the other hand, he is also assured by his country and his countrymen that he has never contributed anything to civilization—that his past is nothing more than a record of humiliations gladly endured.
It is against this reality, in the full light of forces aimed at reproducing hierarchies for exploitation, that the Black and Brown child must forge a self.
[A Native Son is a reader-supported publication.]
She must find the means to say no to a society that, at every turn, seeks to condemn her to a certain station in life. And for Baldwin, through his own autobiographical example, to refuse this sentence amounts to an extraordinary act of the will. One decides, and he doesn’t give us much by way of how this happens, to say “no” to it all. To refuse the categorization. And, it is at that point of refusal that one enters into battle against one’s society. As he wrote, “So where we are now is that a whole country of people believe I’m a nigger, and I don’t, and the battle’s on!”
One of the paradoxes of American education, as Ozturk notes, is that precisely at the point “when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society.” Baldwin goes on to say that “it is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person. And on the basis of the evidence – moral and political evidence – one is compelled to say this is a backward society.”
With this insight, Baldwin commends a form of education aimed at undermining the legends that secure this country’s innocence.
I would teach him that there are currently very few standards in this country which are worth a man’s respect. That it is up to him to begin to change these standards for the sake of the life and health of the country I would try to make him know that just as American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it, so is the world larger, more daring, more beautiful and more terrible, but principally larger—and that it belongs to him.
Baldwin goes on to say, “I would teach him that he doesn’t have to be bound by the expediencies of any given administration, any given policy, any given morality; that he has the right and the necessity to examine everything.” This applies not only to the students in the classroom, but to all of us. Conformity stifles the soul. We too must break loose from the assumptions and histories that reconcile us to the world as it is. In the end, we must have an idea of education for all children that will rid us of this paradox.
In his essay, “The Uses of the Blues,” Baldwin clearly states what he takes to be the “Negro Problem.”
I’m talking about what happens to you if, having barely escaped suicide, or death, or madness, or yourself, you watch your children growing up and no matter what you do, not matter what you do, you are powerless, you are really powerless, against the force of the world that is out to tell your child that he has no right to be alive. And no amount of liberal jargon, and no amount of talk about how well and how far we have progressed, does anything to soften or to point out any solution to this dilemma. In every generation, ever since Negroes have been here, every Negro mother and father has had to face that child and try to create in that child some way of surviving this particular world, some way to make the child who will be despised not despise himself. I don’t know what ‘the Negro Problem’ means to white people, but this is what it means to Negroes.
Here Baldwin foregrounds the fact of growing up, of coming of age, in a place that denies you standing, that distorts your sense of self and arrests your capacities. And it is with great effort and risk that one takes up the task of self-creation in such a world.
The daunting challenge of seeking a higher self in a world that denies one standing gives new meaning to W.E.B. Du Bois’s cry of “two unreconciled strivings.” For African Americans, as Langston Hughes said, life ain’t been no crystal stair. To reach for this higher self across the proverbial tracks, to do so amid the clamoring calls to cast away America’s history and while dark forces literally snatch people from our sight, requires something more fundamental; it requires a confrontation with the reality of this place.
In these dark and trying times we must muster the democratic hope and courage to challenge this nation and insist that we educate our children, ourselves really, into the habits of democracy so that we all can be born again. If this is to happen, as Ozturk urged us to do, we must remember Baldwin’s words in his talk to teachers: that “America is not the world and if America is going to become a nation, she must find a way—and this child must help her to find a way to use the tremendous potential and tremendous energy which this child represents. If this country does not find a way to use that energy, it will be destroyed by that energy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/us/students-trump-ice-detention.html
What We Know About the Detentions of Student Protesters
The Trump administration is looking to deport pro-Palestinian students who are legally in the United States, citing national security. Critics say that violates free speech protections.
Listen to this article · 8:11 min Learn more
Demonstrators in Somerville, Mass., rallying in support of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University who was taken into federal custody on Tuesday. Credit: Faith Ninivaggi/Reuters
Updated March 29, 2025
New York Times
Leer en español
The Trump administration is trying to deport pro-Palestinian students and academics who are legally in the United States, a new front in its clash with elite schools over what it says is their failure to combat antisemitism.
The White House asserts that these moves — many of which involve immigrants with visas and green cards — are necessary because those taken into custody threaten national security. But some legal experts say that the administration is trampling on free speech rights and using lower-level laws to crack down on activism.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on his plane on Thursday night that the State Department under his direction had revoked the visas of possibly more than 300 people and was continuing to revoke visas daily. He did not specify how many of those people had taken part in campus protests or acted to support Palestinians but said “there’s a lot of them now.”
Immigration officials are known to have pursued at least nine people in apparent connection to this effort since the start of March.
The detentions and efforts to deport people who are in the country legally reflect an escalation of the administration’s efforts to restrict immigration, as it also seeks to deport undocumented immigrants en masse.
Here is what we know about the college detentions.
Who is being targeted?
The nine people who have been pursued and, in some cases, detained by federal officials include current and former students and professors. Most of them have publicly expressed pro-Palestinian views. Some have green cards, making them lawful permanent residents. Others have student visas, which allows foreign nationals to enter the United States for full-time study.
The extent of their involvement in pro-Palestinian advocacy varies. Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is believed to be the first to be taken into custody, helped lead high-profile protests at Columbia University against Israel’s war in Gaza. Mr. Khalil, who has Palestinian heritage, is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant. He was sent to a detention center in Louisiana.
Mahmoud Khalil speaking at Columbia University last spring. He helped lead high-profile protests at the school against Israel’s war in Gaza. Credit: Bing Guan for The New York Times
The administration has also targeted students who have been less involved. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and graduate student at Tufts University, was taken into federal custody on Tuesday. She had drawn the attention of a right-wing group that claims to combat antisemitism on college campuses and publicizes its findings online after helping write an opinion piece in the student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands.
The administration has also targeted students who have been less involved. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and graduate student at Tufts University, was taken into federal custody on Tuesday. She had drawn the attention of a right-wing group that claims to combat antisemitism on college campuses and publicizes its findings online after helping write an opinion piece in the student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said investigators with that agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement “found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right.” She did not offer evidence or details of that support.
A video of Ms. Ozturk’s detention, showing plainclothes agents from the Homeland Security Department detaining her as she was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends, has circulated widely online. “This video should shake everyone to their core,” her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement on Wednesday. Ms. Ozturk is being held in Louisiana.
As it scrutinizes people living in the United States, investigators for ICE have been searching videos, online posts and news clippings of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. The government also appears to be getting information from private organizations.
Who else has the government sought to deport?
Several other students and academics have been detained or are being sought.
Ranjani Srinivasan, a Fulbright recipient from India who was pursuing a doctoral degree in urban planning at Columbia, fled to Canada after immigration authorities revoked her student visa.
Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia student and legal permanent resident from South Korea, has been targeted for deportation by immigration agents. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to halt its efforts.
Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia student and legal permanent resident from South Korea, has been targeted for deportation by immigration agents. Credit: CLEAR
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian student from the West Bank who had been involved in the protests at Columbia, was taken into custody by immigration agents after overstaying a student visa that was terminated in 2022.
Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Gambia and Britain pursuing a doctorate in Africana studies at Cornell, was ordered to surrender to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A prominent pro-Palestinian voice on campus, Mr. Taal had previously filed a pre-emptive lawsuit to block possible action against him.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University, was detained at his home. He is married to a Palestinian American woman whose father is a former adviser to a deceased Hamas leader. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Mr. Suri’s deportation. He is “awaiting his court date” in Alexandria, La., according to his lawyer.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, was deported despite holding a valid visa. She was detained upon returning from a trip abroad to Lebanon, her home country, and expelled in possible defiance of a court order. A lawyer representing a member of Dr. Alawieh’s family has vowed to continue fighting.
Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian citizen and doctoral student at the University of Alabama, was taken into custody and detained by immigration officials. A Homeland Security official said on Thursday that Mr. Doroudi “posed significant national security concerns” but did not provide additional information about why he was detained.
In other cases, the government’s justification is unclear or appears to be unrelated to the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters. Kseniia Petrova, a research associate at Harvard Medical School, was detained in February after customs officials revoked her visa for failing to properly declare frog embryo samples at the airport, according to her lawyer.
A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was also taken into custody this week, the school said in a statement on Friday, though it did not release a name or provide other details.
Leer en español
The Trump administration is trying to deport pro-Palestinian students and academics who are legally in the United States, a new front in its clash with elite schools over what it says is their failure to combat antisemitism.
The White House asserts that these moves — many of which involve immigrants with visas and green cards — are necessary because those taken into custody threaten national security. But some legal experts say that the administration is trampling on free speech rights and using lower-level laws to crack down on activism.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on his plane on Thursday night that the State Department under his direction had revoked the visas of possibly more than 300 people and was continuing to revoke visas daily. He did not specify how many of those people had taken part in campus protests or acted to support Palestinians but said “there’s a lot of them now.”
Immigration officials are known to have pursued at least nine people in apparent connection to this effort since the start of March.
The detentions and efforts to deport people who are in the country legally reflect an escalation of the administration’s efforts to restrict immigration, as it also seeks to deport undocumented immigrants en masse.
Here is what we know about the college detentions.
Who is being targeted?
The nine people who have been pursued and, in some cases, detained by federal officials include current and former students and professors. Most of them have publicly expressed pro-Palestinian views. Some have green cards, making them lawful permanent residents. Others have student visas, which allows foreign nationals to enter the United States for full-time study.
The extent of their involvement in pro-Palestinian advocacy varies. Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is believed to be the first to be taken into custody, helped lead high-profile protests at Columbia University against Israel’s war in Gaza. Mr. Khalil, who has Palestinian heritage, is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant. He was sent to a detention center in Louisiana.
Mahmoud Khalil speaking at Columbia University last spring. He helped lead high-profile protests at the school against Israel’s war in Gaza. Credit: Bing Guan for The New York Times
The administration has also targeted students who have been less involved. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and graduate student at Tufts University, was taken into federal custody on Tuesday. She had drawn the attention of a right-wing group that claims to combat antisemitism on college campuses and publicizes its findings online after helping write an opinion piece in the student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands.
The administration has also targeted students who have been less involved. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and graduate student at Tufts University, was taken into federal custody on Tuesday. She had drawn the attention of a right-wing group that claims to combat antisemitism on college campuses and publicizes its findings online after helping write an opinion piece in the student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said investigators with that agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement “found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right.” She did not offer evidence or details of that support.
A video of Ms. Ozturk’s detention, showing plainclothes agents from the Homeland Security Department detaining her as she was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends, has circulated widely online. “This video should shake everyone to their core,” her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement on Wednesday. Ms. Ozturk is being held in Louisiana.
As it scrutinizes people living in the United States, investigators for ICE have been searching videos, online posts and news clippings of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. The government also appears to be getting information from private organizations.
Who else has the government sought to deport?
Several other students and academics have been detained or are being sought.
Ranjani Srinivasan, a Fulbright recipient from India who was pursuing a doctoral degree in urban planning at Columbia, fled to Canada after immigration authorities revoked her student visa.
Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia student and legal permanent resident from South Korea, has been targeted for deportation by immigration agents. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to halt its efforts.
Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia student and legal permanent resident from South Korea, has been targeted for deportation by immigration agents. Credit: CLEAR
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian student from the West Bank who had been involved in the protests at Columbia, was taken into custody by immigration agents after overstaying a student visa that was terminated in 2022.
Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Gambia and Britain pursuing a doctorate in Africana studies at Cornell, was ordered to surrender to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A prominent pro-Palestinian voice on campus, Mr. Taal had previously filed a pre-emptive lawsuit to block possible action against him.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University, was detained at his home. He is married to a Palestinian American woman whose father is a former adviser to a deceased Hamas leader. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Mr. Suri’s deportation. He is “awaiting his court date” in Alexandria, La., according to his lawyer.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, was deported despite holding a valid visa. She was detained upon returning from a trip abroad to Lebanon, her home country, and expelled in possible defiance of a court order. A lawyer representing a member of Dr. Alawieh’s family has vowed to continue fighting.
Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian citizen and doctoral student at the University of Alabama, was taken into custody and detained by immigration officials. A Homeland Security official said on Thursday that Mr. Doroudi “posed significant national security concerns” but did not provide additional information about why he was detained.
In other cases, the government’s justification is unclear or appears to be unrelated to the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters. Kseniia Petrova, a research associate at Harvard Medical School, was detained in February after customs officials revoked her visa for failing to properly declare frog embryo samples at the airport, according to her lawyer.
A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was also taken into custody this week, the school said in a statement on Friday, though it did not release a name or provide other details.
Are these detentions and deportations legal?
The Trump administration has justified the actions by citing a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which grants the secretary of state broad authority to expel foreigners deemed to pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
But legal experts question whether the actions of the targeted students meet this threshold. Lawful permanent residents are also protected by the Constitution, including free speech and due process rights, which could set up a major legal challenge. Lawyers for those whose student visas have been revoked have similarly challenged the administration on constitutional grounds.
In some cases, the administration has also cited lower-level offenses to justify deportation efforts. The government has added new accusations against Mr. Khalil, saying that he withheld information about his membership in organizations, including a United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees, when applying for permanent residency. One of Mr. Khalil’s lawyers dismissed these new claims as “patently weak.”
The Trump administration has justified the actions by citing a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which grants the secretary of state broad authority to expel foreigners deemed to pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
But legal experts question whether the actions of the targeted students meet this threshold. Lawful permanent residents are also protected by the Constitution, including free speech and due process rights, which could set up a major legal challenge. Lawyers for those whose student visas have been revoked have similarly challenged the administration on constitutional grounds.
In some cases, the administration has also cited lower-level offenses to justify deportation efforts. The government has added new accusations against Mr. Khalil, saying that he withheld information about his membership in organizations, including a United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees, when applying for permanent residency. One of Mr. Khalil’s lawyers dismissed these new claims as “patently weak.”
Will more students be targeted?
Administration officials have signaled that these detentions and deportations reflect the beginning of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters. President Trump called Mr. Khalil’s case the first of “many to come.”
Reporting was contributed by Edward Wong, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Tyler Pager and Hamed Aleaziz.
Kate Selig is a Times national reporter and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their career. More about Kate Selig
See more on: Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, State Department
More on Higher Education in America
Naval Academy: The school said it had ended its use of affirmative action in admissions, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office has ordered that the academy identify books related to so-called diversity, equity and inclusion themes in the school’s library and remove them from circulation.
Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies: The center’s director and associate director will be leaving their positions, according to two professors with direct knowledge of the moves. Faculty members who have spoken with both professors say each believes they were forced out of their posts.
University of Minnesota Student Detained: In a statement, the school said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had arrested a graduate student.
Mahmoud Khalil: A federal judge heard arguments on whether the case to free Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, should continue to play out in New Jersey or be transferred to Louisiana.
Cornell Student Facing Deportation: Momodou Taal is from a political family and found his muse in Malcolm X. He joined a pro-Palestinian movement that led to his suspension. Now, he is fighting to stay in the United States.
VIDEO:
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/how-the-trump-administration-is-targeting
How the Trump Administration is Targeting College Students to Crack Down on Our Free Speech
It begins with pro-Palestinian students and brown-skinned immigrants as the Trump Administration and the MAGA movement are going to abuse their power to silence all their critics and enemies.
THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali
March 28, 2025
Substack
Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian Ph.D. student at Cornell, is trying to avoid detention and deportation. What did he do to deserve such a fate? He engaged in pro-Palestinian activism on campus. On Thursday, a judge denied his attempts to stop the Trump Administration’s efforts to deport him. Unfortunately, his student visa has already been revoked.
Taal has not been charged with any crimes.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and grad student at Tufts University, was abducted by several masked immigration officials in a Boston suburb last Tuesday as she was going to an iftar dinner. She is allegedly being held in a detention center in Louisiana right now. What did she do to deserve such a fate? She was a co-author of an op-ed in The Tuft’s Daily criticizing Israel’s occupation and genocide and urging the university to divest from the country. A federal judge in Massachusetts said on Friday she can’t be deported without a court order.
Ozturk has not been charged with any crimes.
Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian grad student at Columbia University currently detained in a Louisiana detention center. He is a green card holder and is married to a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant. What did he do to deserve such a fate? He was a lead activist in the pro-Palestinian protests on campus. His attorneys are urging a federal judge to free him and describing his imprisonment “as a ‘Kafkaesque’ ploy to chill free speech.”
Khalil has not been charged with any crimes.
To make it all worse, we now know that several immigrants who were kidnapped and sent to an El Salvador prison have zero connections to a Venezuelan gang. They were simply brown and tattooed. But why let due process and cruelty stop you from making a fascist ad?
DHS Secretary and dog killer Kristi Noem released a video in which she stood in front of caged prisoners while wearing a $50,000 watch.
None of us are safe in the Trump regime. They are flexing their powers and normalizing their fascist behavior by going after the most vulnerable and marginalized among us. They are punishing innocent immigrants, college students, and foreign academics. They have expanded their targets to include law firms, media companies, and judges, and it will eventually include anyone who dares defy their authoritarian dictates.
In this Chai Talk, I talk to Momodou Taal’s attorney, Maria Kari, a human rights lawyer and Executive Director of Project Taha, which provides pro bono legal services for the most marginalized. In addition to outlining how this crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists is a chilling violation of free speech, Kari explains how it sets the stage for a broader assault on all of our rights. However, there is still hope with lawyers and judges, provided they choose actually to fight and not bend the knee.
The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali is a free, reader-supported publication. We don’t believe in paywalls. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a paid or free subscriber.
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None of us are safe in the Trump regime. They are flexing their powers and normalizing their fascist behavior by going after the most vulnerable and marginalized among us. They are punishing innocent immigrants, college students, and foreign academics. They have expanded their targets to include law firms, media companies, and judges, and it will eventually include anyone who dares defy their authoritarian dictates.
In this Chai Talk, I talk to Momodou Taal’s attorney, Maria Kari, a human rights lawyer and Executive Director of Project Taha, which provides pro bono legal services for the most marginalized. In addition to outlining how this crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists is a chilling violation of free speech, Kari explains how it sets the stage for a broader assault on all of our rights. However, there is still hope with lawyers and judges, provided they choose actually to fight and not bend the knee.
The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali is a free, reader-supported publication. We don’t believe in paywalls. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a paid or free subscriber.
The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali
Thanks for reading The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Share
'If We Had SMARTER Fascists, We'd Be Finished' - Mehdi Unpacks Trump's Authoritarianism
Zeteo
Streamed live 23 hours ago
Join Mehdi Hasan for a Live YouTube chat about ICE rounding up people expressing Palestinian solidarity, and the Trump admin's dual crackdowns on free speech and immigration.
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmApssrzC8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmApssrzC8k
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/trump-state-health-grants-cuts.html
Trump executive order seeks to 'restore' American history through Smithsonian overhaul
March 28, 2025
Heard on Morning Edition
Chloe Veltman
1-Minute Listen
Transcript
PHOTO: The entry to the Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing Vice President Vance to eliminate "divisive race-centered ideology" from Smithsonian museums, educational and research centers, and the National Zoo.
Titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the order states, "Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive." It goes on to say: "Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history."
The order calls for Vance, along with Vince Haley, the assistant to the president for domestic policy, and Lindsey Halligan, the special assistant to the president and senior associate staff secretary, to work with Congress to prohibit the Smithsonian from receiving appropriations for exhibitions and programs that "degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy." It also requests that future appropriations "celebrate the achievements of women in the American Women's History Museum and do not recognize men as women in any respect in the Museum."
NPR reached out to the Smithsonian for comment but hasn't heard back.
Performing Arts
Kennedy Center lays off Social Impact employees
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'Chilling effect': Arts organizations react to end of DEI initiatives from fed agency
The executive order further calls for the appointment of citizen members to the Smithsonian Board of Regents committed to advancing the policy of the order.
This is the latest in a series of executive orders issued by the president since he took office in January aimed at rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts previously promoted by federal agencies — among them the National Endowment for the Arts' Challenge America program. It primarily supported small nonprofits reaching "historically underserved communities that have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economics, and/or disability."
This latest order blames the Biden administration for advancing a "corrosive ideology" that, it states, sought to revise historical truth. "Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth," the order states. "Under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed."
The order includes additional provisions seeking to reinstate public monuments, memorials and statues that were "removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology," as well as improve the infrastructure of Independence National Historical Park in time for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Members of the academic and cultural communities responded to NPR's requests for comment about the new order.
Chandra Manning, a history professor at Georgetown University, said the executive order is rooted in, "the unfounded fear that Americans cannot handle the full story of our nation's past."
"The exhibits at the Smithsonian sometimes challenge us to face the contradictions between our highest ideals and actual events and facts," said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "Americans welcome this challenge precisely because we strive to realize the promise of this country's founding."
Performer and cultural strategist, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, former head of Social Impact at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, said the wording of the executive order is ill-informed.
" To say the Smithsonian Institution has an anti-American agenda is to reveal a complete misunderstanding of what America's supposed to be," Joseph said.
Joseph and six other members of his team were laid off earlier this week as part of the Trump administration's overhaul of the cultural center.
March 28, 2025
Heard on Morning Edition
Chloe Veltman
1-Minute Listen
Transcript
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing Vice President Vance to eliminate "divisive race-centered ideology" from Smithsonian museums, educational and research centers, and the National Zoo.
Titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the order states, "Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive." It goes on to say: "Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history."
The order calls for Vance, along with Vince Haley, the assistant to the president for domestic policy, and Lindsey Halligan, the special assistant to the president and senior associate staff secretary, to work with Congress to prohibit the Smithsonian from receiving appropriations for exhibitions and programs that "degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy." It also requests that future appropriations "celebrate the achievements of women in the American Women's History Museum and do not recognize men as women in any respect in the Museum."
NPR reached out to the Smithsonian for comment but hasn't heard back.
Performing Arts
Kennedy Center lays off Social Impact employees
Culture
'Chilling effect': Arts organizations react to end of DEI initiatives from fed agency
The executive order further calls for the appointment of citizen members to the Smithsonian Board of Regents committed to advancing the policy of the order.
This is the latest in a series of executive orders issued by the president since he took office in January aimed at rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts previously promoted by federal agencies — among them the National Endowment for the Arts' Challenge America program. It primarily supported small nonprofits reaching "historically underserved communities that have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economics, and/or disability."
This latest order blames the Biden administration for advancing a "corrosive ideology" that, it states, sought to revise historical truth. "Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth," the order states. "Under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed."
The order includes additional provisions seeking to reinstate public monuments, memorials and statues that were "removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology," as well as improve the infrastructure of Independence National Historical Park in time for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Members of the academic and cultural communities responded to NPR's requests for comment about the new order.
Chandra Manning, a history professor at Georgetown University, said the executive order is rooted in, "the unfounded fear that Americans cannot handle the full story of our nation's past."
"The exhibits at the Smithsonian sometimes challenge us to face the contradictions between our highest ideals and actual events and facts," said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "Americans welcome this challenge precisely because we strive to realize the promise of this country's founding."
Performer and cultural strategist, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, former head of Social Impact at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, said the wording of the executive order is ill-informed.
" To say the Smithsonian Institution has an anti-American agenda is to reveal a complete misunderstanding of what America's supposed to be," Joseph said.
Joseph and six other members of his team were laid off earlier this week as part of the Trump administration's overhaul of the cultural center.
Culture
Trump wants to restore statues and monuments. Will that happen?
by Isabella Gomez SarmientoMarch 28, 2025
NPR
PHOTO: A towering statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is removed in Richmond, Va., in September 2021. It was one of many monuments and statues to Confederate leaders removed or relocated following protests after George Floyd's murder in 2020. Steve Helber/AP
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at "restoring truth and sanity to American history" – decrying what the order characterized as efforts to "undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light." The order calls for the removal of "divisive race-centered ideology" from the Smithsonian's museums and research centers. It also calls on the Secretary of the Interior to restore public monuments, statues and other markers that have been removed or changed since 2020. But it's unclear how many sites — and which ones — will be impacted by the executive order.
Trump executive order seeks to 'restore' American history through Smithsonian overhaul
Culture
How will Trump's executive order affect the Smithsonian?
President Trump has called on the Interior Secretary to determine whether any memorials, statues, markers or properties that fall within the Department of the Interior's jurisdiction "have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology" since January 1, 2020, more than a year before Trump left office in his first term. If so, the executive order calls on the Department to reinstate any such statues or monuments. The Department of the Interior includes the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and nine other bureaus. The Department did not respond to NPR's request for comment regarding the executive order.
The order also directs the Department of the Interior to ensure that any monuments, statues or memorials under its jurisdiction "do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape."
A national reckoning on race – and monuments to the past – grew after George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. More than 200 public Confederate symbols across the country were removed, relocated or renamed within about a year and a half, according to research by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Seth Levi, Chief Program Strategy Officer of the SPLC, says many of these removals did not take place on lands under the Department of the Interior's jurisdiction.
"Even for the objects that are on public land, it's normally land that's owned and controlled by municipalities or state governments. I'm not actually aware of any removals on National Park Service land," Levi says. "There have been removals on land that's controlled by the Department of Defense with the names of military bases, [but] it's unclear to us how many monuments have already been removed that this would actually apply to."
Though action from Thursday's executive order might be limited for now, Levi says he believes the Trump administration is trying to "minimize the fact that enslavement was a huge part of our history" and that the contributions of racial minorities to American history "seem to be under threat." He also points to SPLC data showing that historically, Confederate monuments and names on schools, roads and other sites grew in the U.S. during the beginning of the Jim Crow era and around the time of the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
The National Park Service has already been revising its websites
Thursday's executive order comes on the heels of other changes to National Park Service websites. After President Trump's January executive order about gender ideology declared that "It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female," the NPS removed all references to transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website. Weeks later, it had deleted websites containing information about transgender activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
National
Park Service erases 'transgender' on Stonewall website, uses the term 'LGB' movement
Culture
NPS takes down web pages dedicated to transgender activists and LGBTQ history
The National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan group that advocates to protect national parks, issued a statement regarding Thursday's order. "Across the country, our national parks protect vital American history, from the birthplaces of American presidents to the birthplaces of our democracy. Our parks tell stories from the civil rights movement, the Civil War, and beyond," said Alan Spears, a senior director at the National Parks Conservation Association. "Every American who cares about our country's history should be worried about what people, places, and themes disappear next."
Last year, the National Park Foundation, the fundraising partner of the NPS, announced a historic grant of $100 million from the philanthropic organization the Lilly Endowment, part of which would help "Tell a More Complete Story of America: Delivering a more comprehensive historical narrative, including the experiences of communities whose voices and contributions have not been fully told as a part of the American story." The Lilly Endowment declined to comment on whether Trump's executive order would impact the grant. The National Park Foundation did not respond to NPR's request for comment.
Erin Thompson, author of Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, says the wording of the order – and specifically the phrase "false reconstruction of American history" – caught her eye. "The use of the term reconstruction is pretty loaded there, referring to the post-Civil War period of what some people regard as an attack on white Southern culture," she says. "It fits right into the narrative of the 'Lost Cause,' making an argument not only that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, but implying that it was about slavery is somehow an insult to Southern strength."
"You can't control historical memory by controlling monuments," says Thompson. "There's so many people who tell their children other stories, who lead tour groups, who write books. There's so many ways of learning about history that are not looking at some chunk of stone."
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5344513/academy-palestinian-director-oscars-no-other-land-hamdan-ballal
Culture
Academy apologizes for not adequately supporting Oscar-winning Palestinian director
by Chloe Veltman
March 29, 2025
NPR
PHOTO: Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land, is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, on Tuesday. Leo Correa/AP
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a statement to its members on Friday apologizing for not adequately expressing its support of the Palestinian Oscar-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal.
Ballal, who won this year's feature-length documentary Academy Award for co-directing the film No Other Land about the difficulties of life under Israeli occupation, said he was attacked on Monday by Israeli settlers. He was then arrested by the Israeli army. Israeli authorities released the director the following day, saying Ballal had been detained for hurling stones. The filmmaker and witnesses deny this accusation.
The Academy's initial statement in response to the alleged attack, sent out on Wednesday to its roughly 11,000 members, did not include Ballal's name or the title of his film.
Co-signed by Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang, the Wednesday statement spoke in generalities, such as, "The Academy condemns harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints," and, "We believe deeply in the ability of film to illuminate, to provoke thought, and to bridge divides by offering a window into diverse human experiences."
Kramer and Yang's updated statement, sent out on Friday and shared by the Academy's press office on Saturday via email with NPR, was more explicit:
"We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr. Ballal and the film by name," it said. "We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the Academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world."
The apology appeared after a wave of online protests against the Academy — first for not responding to Ballal's attack, and then for not responding adequately to it.
"Sadly, the US Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers," wrote No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham on X on Wednesday, before Kramer and Yang released their first statement.
"Several US Academy members — especially in the documentary branch — pushed for a statement, but it was ultimately refused. We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the settler attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they felt no need to respond," Abraham wrote.
After Kramer and Yang's initial statement was issued, a large group of Academy members launched a letter of protest on Friday against it. Among the signatories, which had exceeded 800 in number at the time of writing, are Hollywood A-listers including Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Steve Buscemi and America Ferrera.
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"The statement by Bill Kramer and Janet Yang fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for," the protest letter states above the signatures. "Therefore we are issuing our own statement, which speaks for the undersigned members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."
In an email on Saturday, the Academy told NPR its updated apology naming Ballal and his film was already in the works prior to the much-signed protest petition, but that the 55-member board needed to convene before it could be released, requiring additional time.
The incident involving Ballal highlights the ongoing outbursts of violence in the West Bank. Attacks on Palestinians have escalated since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.
Trump targets 'anti-American ideology' at Smithsonian museums
by Max Matza
March 28, 2025
BBC News
PHOTO: Many Smithsonian buildings are located in downtown Washington DC. Getty Images.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which operates more than 20 museums and research centres visited by millions yearly in Washington DC and New York City.
The order directs the vice-president to "eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from the institute's museums, centres and the National Zoo in Washington.
It also directs the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which "have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history".
The move is part of Trump's effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics.
The order is titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History". It says that Vice-President JD Vance, who became a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents due to his position in government, will lead the purge.
Trump's order says that Congress should not fund Smithsonian exhibits and programmes that "divide Americans by race". It alleges that the American Women's History Museum, which is in development, plans to "recognize men as women".
It also singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying that the museum "has proclaimed that 'hard work,' 'individualism,' and 'the nuclear family' are aspects of 'White culture'." The museum opened in 2016 in Washington as former President Barack Obama, America's first black president, was leaving office.
The Smithsonian museums offer free entry to some 15 to 30 million visitors each year. It operates 21 museums in Washington, Virgina and New York.
They include the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, the National Zoo and more than a dozen others.
The order also instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to complete "restorations and improvements" to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It comes ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place within the building.
Trump has set out to radically reshape American culture, which he says has been contaminated by "woke" left-wing ideology. He has signed several orders that are intended to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes from the federal government - some of which led to legal challenges.
Shortly after taking office, Trump fired the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, and installed himself as chairman.
The move led to widespread criticism from actors and directors, causing several to cancel upcoming performances.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/trump-smithsonian-executive-order
Trump administration
by Max Matza
March 28, 2025
BBC News
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which operates more than 20 museums and research centres visited by millions yearly in Washington DC and New York City.
The order directs the vice-president to "eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from the institute's museums, centres and the National Zoo in Washington.
It also directs the interior secretary to restore federal properties, including parks, memorials and statues, which "have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history".
The move is part of Trump's effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics.
The order is titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History". It says that Vice-President JD Vance, who became a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents due to his position in government, will lead the purge.
Trump's order says that Congress should not fund Smithsonian exhibits and programmes that "divide Americans by race". It alleges that the American Women's History Museum, which is in development, plans to "recognize men as women".
It also singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying that the museum "has proclaimed that 'hard work,' 'individualism,' and 'the nuclear family' are aspects of 'White culture'." The museum opened in 2016 in Washington as former President Barack Obama, America's first black president, was leaving office.
The Smithsonian museums offer free entry to some 15 to 30 million visitors each year. It operates 21 museums in Washington, Virgina and New York.
They include the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, the National Zoo and more than a dozen others.
The order also instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to complete "restorations and improvements" to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It comes ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place within the building.
Trump has set out to radically reshape American culture, which he says has been contaminated by "woke" left-wing ideology. He has signed several orders that are intended to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes from the federal government - some of which led to legal challenges.
Shortly after taking office, Trump fired the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, and installed himself as chairman.
The move led to widespread criticism from actors and directors, causing several to cancel upcoming performances.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/trump-smithsonian-executive-order
Trump administration
Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for ‘improper ideology’
JD Vance to lead plan as Trump says there’s been ‘concerted’effort to rewrite US history with ‘distorted narrative’
JD Vance to lead plan as Trump says there’s been ‘concerted’effort to rewrite US history with ‘distorted narrative’
People at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery ceremony for the installation of a painting of Abraham Lincoln by WFK Travers, in Washington DC, in 2023. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
by Adam Gabbatt
28 March 2025
The Guardian
Donald Trump has ordered an overhaul to the Smithsonian Institution, claiming he will “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the world’s largest museum, education and research complex.
In an executive order issued on Thursday, the president said there had been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite US history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”.
The order directs JD Vance, the vice-president, to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian’s museums, education and research centers and the National zoo.
It also directs Vance to ensure that the American Women’s History Museum does not “recognize men as women in any respect”.
In language that reflected Republican talking points often heard on rightwing news channels, Trump claimed the US had witnessed an effort to “rewrite history”.
“Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed,” the president said.
Trump’s order pointed to an exhibit at the American Art Museum, titled: The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture.
Trump said the exhibit “claims that the United States has ‘used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement’”.
He added that the exhibit “promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct”. Trump complained that the exhibit uses the phrase: “Race is a human invention.”
Trump also appeared to suggest that Confederate-era names and statues, many of which have been removed in recent years, could be reissued to parks and memorials.
“The Order also directs the Secretary of the Interior restore federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events,” Trump said.
The Smithsonian Institution was established with funds from James Smithson, a British scientist who left his estate to the US to found “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”.
On Thursday, Trump also created the “DC safe and beautiful task force” by executive order. It will be chaired by Stephen Miller, the US homeland security adviser.
According to the order, the taskforce will coordinate with local officials on such matters as enforcing federal immigration law, including deporting people living illegally in the city, boosting law enforcement presence, and increasing the speed and lowering the cost of processing applications to carry concealed weapons.
Explore more on these topics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/us/university-of-minnesota-student-detained.html
28 March 2025
The Guardian
Donald Trump has ordered an overhaul to the Smithsonian Institution, claiming he will “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the world’s largest museum, education and research complex.
In an executive order issued on Thursday, the president said there had been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite US history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”.
The order directs JD Vance, the vice-president, to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian’s museums, education and research centers and the National zoo.
It also directs Vance to ensure that the American Women’s History Museum does not “recognize men as women in any respect”.
In language that reflected Republican talking points often heard on rightwing news channels, Trump claimed the US had witnessed an effort to “rewrite history”.
“Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed,” the president said.
Trump’s order pointed to an exhibit at the American Art Museum, titled: The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture.
Trump said the exhibit “claims that the United States has ‘used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement’”.
He added that the exhibit “promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct”. Trump complained that the exhibit uses the phrase: “Race is a human invention.”
Trump also appeared to suggest that Confederate-era names and statues, many of which have been removed in recent years, could be reissued to parks and memorials.
“The Order also directs the Secretary of the Interior restore federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events,” Trump said.
The Smithsonian Institution was established with funds from James Smithson, a British scientist who left his estate to the US to found “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”.
On Thursday, Trump also created the “DC safe and beautiful task force” by executive order. It will be chaired by Stephen Miller, the US homeland security adviser.
According to the order, the taskforce will coordinate with local officials on such matters as enforcing federal immigration law, including deporting people living illegally in the city, boosting law enforcement presence, and increasing the speed and lowering the cost of processing applications to carry concealed weapons.
Explore more on these topics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/us/university-of-minnesota-student-detained.html