‘How Bad Slavery Was’

[David Lockmiller]

New York Times headline August 19, 2025 reads: Trump Says Smithsonian Focuses Too Much on ‘How Bad Slavery Was’

Text reads partially as follows:

First paragraph of story reads: President Trump accused the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday of focusing too much on “how bad slavery was” and not enough on the “brightness” of America as his administration conducts a wide-ranging review of the content in its museum exhibits.

New York Times quoted response from Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, reads as follows:

“It’s the epitome of dumbness to criticize the Smithsonian for dealing with the reality of slavery in America. It’s what led to our Civil War and is a defining aspect of our national history. And the Smithsonian deals in a robust way with what slavery was, but it also deals with human rights and civil rights in equal abundance.”