"Wokeism is over": Trump calls on the courts to investigate US museums

Continuing his offensive against American educational and cultural institutions, Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, August 19, that he had asked the courts to investigate museums across the country that he accuses of being "woke," particularly regarding the history of slavery . "Museums in Washington, but also across the country, are essentially the last remnants of wokeness," the president denounced on his Truth Social network. "I have instructed my prosecutors to review [the policies of] museums and to begin exactly the same process followed with universities, where immense progress has been made," added the conservative billionaire. "This country cannot be woke because WOKISM IS OVER," he proclaimed.

The White House announced last week in a letter to the institution that manages some twenty public museums in Washington, the Smithsonian Institution , that the government would conduct a thorough review to ensure their "alignment" with Donald Trump's vision of American history, based on "truth and reason." "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL," Donald Trump thundered, deploring that the museums in the federal capital present, according to him, a "horrible image of our country, [notably] on the evils of slavery [...] and nothing on its success and its brilliance."

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Last March, the US president signed an executive order aimed at regaining control over the content of the Smithsonian museums , which he had already accused of "historical revisionism" and racial "ideological indoctrination ," particularly under his predecessors and political enemies Barack Obama (2009-2017) and Joe Biden (2021-2025). The US government justified these measures against the museums - which also affect the Washington cultural center, the Kennedy Center - by the festivities of the ^250th anniversary of the independence of the United States in 2026.

For the past seven months, Donald Trump has embarked on a rapid takeover of cultural and educational institutions over which he has influence, from museums to universities, in order to purge them of what he considers to be progressive ideas in favor of minorities. The English terms "woke" and "wokeism" are borrowed from African-American struggles, which mean "being awake" to injustices. They have been appropriated by conservative leaders and movements in Europe and the United States, to denounce what they consider to be excesses of activism in the fight for minorities and against social and climate injustices.