“Donald Trump is working overtime to turn our museums into instruments of MAGA propaganda, rather than places where American people and visitors from around the world can encounter our factual history.”

Pressley Has Fought to Protect Black History Against Trump’s Crusade to Whitewash Museums

Pressley, Tonko Demanded an Investigation into Trump’s Attack on Smithsonian Museums

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – During a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) highlighted Trump’s attempts to erase, whitewash, and rewrite American history, through his attacks on Smithsonian museums and cultural institutions. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley drew parallels between Trump’s attempts to remove museum exhibits—especially those that display moments in American history related to marginalized communities—and the fascist actions of the Nazi regime to destroy Jewish art.

A transcript of Congresswoman Pressley’s remarks is available below and the video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Rebukes Trump’s Fascist Takeover of Museums, Attempts to Erase & Rewrite our Shared History

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

July 21, 2026

REP. PRESSLEY: Our shared American history, our shared American history is under attack. 

Donald Trump is working overtime to turn our museums into instruments of MAGA propaganda, rather than places where American people and visitors from around the world can encounter our factual history. 

I had the privilege this weekend of visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee—a Smithsonian affiliate—and, what I I took in there was factual, it was powerful, it was equal parts devastating and also instructive, which is why people are working so hard to erase it. 

And let me just be clear. Try as you might to erase Black history and to erase Black people, you cannot erase us. But I digress. 

The work of our museums is so very important, Dr. Hartig. That work deserves visibility, gratitude, protection, not vilification and threats. 

Since taking office, the Trump administration has become synonymous with fascism. 

While there is no one set definition, historians have generally agreed upon several characteristics. 

Dr. Blight, you were selected to be the president of the Society of American Historians, so I’m going to ask you to keep me honest on this.

Now, what I’ve learned is that fascism usually includes elements like undermining fair elections, a constant targeting of vulnerable people and labeling them as enemies, and an overwhelming amount of government corruption. 

Sounds eerily familiar. A damning and devastating déjà vu of the moment we find ourselves in right now. 

The element I want to focus on today is the fascist hostility to our history, academia, museums, and the arts.

Dr. Blight, looking at history, why do fascists and autocrats attack cultural institutions like museums?

DR. BLIGHT: Madam Congresswoman, it’s because they believe that’s where you can control people’s minds, you can sustain a social order. You can control education. You can control the arts. You can control writing and creativity itself. 

It is not just the Nazis. There have been plenty of other neo-fascist or fascist regimes that have attempted to do that.

REP. PRESSLEY: Thank you, Doctor. Yeah, this is a, this is an anti-freedom agenda. 

They want to control what books we read, what is in our museums, what we do with our bodies, attack the free press, degrade free speech. 

It’s an anti-freedom agenda. 

Dr. Blight, what warning signs do you look for when society starts drifting towards fascism and authoritarianism?

DR. BLIGHT: First, I look for the breakup of political parties. Then I look at, I look for this kind of assault on cultural institutions, on things like the National Park Service, which reaches more students than any of us who teach in universities. 

I look for attempts to control the media, which is the dissemination of knowledge. And I look for any attempt at the control over free minds, free speech, freedom itself.

REP. PRESSLEY: Thank you. History gives us a chilling example of what happens when a government decides that it alone will define what counts as good art and acceptable history. 

I’ve heard the stories passed down in Jewish families of Germany in the 1930s as the Nazi regime consolidated political power, it turned its attention to museums and to galleries.

The regime started with criticism, labeling art as “degenerate” and claiming it didn’t fit with the national culture. But then they started attacking museum directors and curators.

And eventually art pieces were confiscated from museums and locked away or sold.

In 1939, Nazis publicly burned thousands of paintings that they couldn’t profit from. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum details much of this history. 

Fascist attacks on museums are not just about history. 

Today, the occupant of the White House labels entire aspects of American history as quote unquote “divisive,” and uses the power of his office to pressure the Smithsonian to remove, whitewash, and to rewrite our stories. 

I’m not here to exaggerate, just to educate. 

And what is spurring this all on? What fuels this? 

Fear of a Black planet. Fear of a multiracial democracy. 

The occupant of the Oval Office, Project 2025, this cult of MAGA—they are fueled by fear and hate. 

Dr. Blight, when people see the warning signs that you mentioned, why is it important that they speak up and take action?

DR. BLIGHT: Well, it’s important because if the people don’t stand up, they lose these institutions.

And as you just suggested, the Black world came to America for the World Cup. I wonder if I wonder if people notice that the world is Black and brown, and the teams from European countries were Black and brown, and we ought to take some lesson from that.

And by the way, to that point earlier, sorry–that they were getting disinformation. 

Well, who were they getting the disinformation from? 

And let’s remember, what fascinates the world about America is our contradictions. 

CHAIR: Your time’s up. 

DR. BLIGHT: So fascinating. 

CHAIR: Thank you. I’m sorry. Your time’s up.

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Rep. Pressley has been a leading voice in defending diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, protecting Black history, and pushing back against Republicans’ efforts to deny intellectual freedom—whether by banning books or threatening museums.

Rep. Pressley has also led on securing critical funding for museums, arts, and humanities.

In 2022, she secured $207 million in federal funding for both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment of the Arts, which has supported communities, schools, and small businesses throughout the Massachusetts 7th Congressional district. She also secured $2,505,000 for the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program in the National Parks Service Operations.

Rep. Pressley has advocated for support for museums across the country that are dedicated to archiving, researching, and preserving the African American experience, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In FY26, she secured $6 million for the Museum Grants for African American History and Culture—including $500,000 for Boston’s Museum of African American History—which will provide such museums the resources they need to build on their work and continue to make history more accessible to the public.

In February 2026, Rep. Pressley led 52 of her colleagues in introducing a resolution to honor Black history museums and cultural institutions in their telling of our accurate, shared American history and protect these institutions from erasure, whitewashing, and funding cuts.

In August 2025, Rep. Pressley condemned Trump’s attempt to politicize, editorialize, and whitewash exhibits at Smithsonian museums—particularly museums and exhibits with diverse and factual presentations of American history.

In May 2025, Rep. Pressley, alongside Congressman Paul Tonko (NY-20), Co-Chair of the Congressional Museum Caucus, led 69 of their colleagues on a letter to the Inspector General of the Smithsonian Institution demanding an investigation on the impact of Donald Trump’s harmful Executive Order attacking Smithsonian museums – namely, the American Art Museum, the American Women’s History Museum, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture – attempting to erase histories of marginalized communities. A copy of the letter is available here.

In May 2025, Rep. Pressley convened a roundtable and press conference at the Museum of African American History in Boston to uplift the vital role of museums in preserving our shared history amid Donald Trump’s attack on cultural institutions and his attempts to erase the documented histories of marginalized communities.

In April 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a floor speech slamming Trump’s attack on Smithsonian museums and affirming that Black history is American history.

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