The Smithsonian is supposed to be a place where America’s history is celebrated and taught. It is not a place where history is censored, reshaped, reinvented, and our Founders vilified and erased. But that is what has been happening over the last few years.

“At a time when the soul of our country is being tested, our Talking About Race portal will help individuals and communities foster constructive conversations and much-needed dialogue about one of our nation’s most challenging topics: racism and its corrosive impact,” the museum began in a July 15, 2020, Twitter thread.

“As an institution devoted to learning and education, we welcome those discussions while also encouraging the public to take a holistic approach and read the information in its full context,” it concluded.

Yes, that was at the same time riots over fentanyl-riddled criminal George Floyd and his 4 funerals were taking place. Democrats were kneeling and evidently the Smithsonian museums were working behind the scenes to redesign American history into their favored DEI woke narratives, which includes an inability to define what a woman is. 

More: “This report by the Domestic Policy Council demonstrates that NMAH fails in the basic task of illuminating our heritage. Our central finding is not that the Museum has simply added overlooked stories, corrected perceived errors, or broadened its historical scope.

Rather,… https://t.co/TKCzchGnD2 pic.twitter.com/WmGWR3QykQ

— Olivia P. Walker (@olivia_p_walker) July 6, 2026

In fact, even was Hartig tried to claim she was the innocent party in all of this, her own quotes in the report, which can be found here, give lie to that. Key conclusions from the report are:

An attempt to “subvert” America’s founding and cancel the founders, only mentioning them in the context of their ties to slavery.
The 250th birthday of America, the one we continue to celebrate, has been “problematized.”
Words have been changed from historical terms to loaded modern political activist terms.
It “abandoned historical scholarship for political activism.”
It failed “obligations” to the American people.

As we are now finding out, the Smithsonian leadership put together a handy dandy guide to reshaping, rewriting, removing history that they consider problematic. 

One of the most dangerous programs Congressman Gill exposed was something called the “MASS Action Toolkit.” MASS standing for “Museums as Sites for Social Action.” A far-left, anti-Trump propaganda narrative created by museum professionals around 2017 to turn their workplaces into hubs of woke activism and “resistance.” The Smithsonian staff heavily promoted it as part of their DEI initiatives.

Anthea Hartig tried very hard to distance herself from this MASS Action Toolkit.

We had no idea that ordinary manners such as being polite meant whites are racist. Yet, according to the Smithsonian’s MASS Action Toolkit, every white person is. Except for Anthea Hartig. 

Not only that, but the Smithsonian is now vilifying our Founding Fathers with passive aggressive racism smears. 

SHOCKING ⚡️ DISRESPECT

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s “Electric Dr. Franklin” has a display that "pondered” whether Ben Franklin had performed electroshock experiments on slaves.

“Pondered”? With ZERO evidence. One of our greatest Founding Fathers.…

— David Burke 🇺🇸 (@ConservativeTht) July 23, 2026

Yes folks, it is real. I went directly to the website and I found this: 

Benjamin Franklin’s remarkable scientific accomplishments were, in part, enabled by slavery, pervasive in the British colonies both North and South. He chose to take advantage of that system. His attitudes about slavery were complicated and changed over time. Even though he later became an abolitionist, he personally held multiple people in bondage during his lifetime. Their labor helped to build his fortune, allowing him to retire early and pursue electrical research and politics. In his Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper, he published anti-slavery writings by authors such as the outspoken Quaker, Benjamin Lay. But he also published advertisements for the sale of enslaved people and bounties for the capture of escapees. A competing publisher in Philadelphia refused to run such ads, believing them morally wrong. To supplement income from his printing shop, Franklin established a store in which he sold paper, ink, books, and general goods. He sometimes also sold enslaved people. Not a central part of his business, he most often acted as a broker, making sales on behalf of others. Franklin also accepted enslaved people as payment for debts, then resold them.

Franklin held people enslaved during the time he pursued his electrical experiments. Their labor in his household helped make time that he could use to study electricity. Family, friends, and visitors directly participated in electrical experiments. The records are few and unclear, but enslaved people may also have directly assisted his research. Ways in which people directly participated in Franklin’s work included operating the research equipment and acting as experimental subjects.

The museum went further into their passive aggressive slam against Ben Franklin with the expanded supplemental, while only giving THREE sentences, just THREE, to his work with our Declaration of Independence and his efforts during the Constitutional Convention. 

Furthermore, when searching, there are zero specific entries regarding Ben Franklin’s role in the Founding of our Republic. Just brief mentions in sentences scattered around. 

Instead, we are being told his history of owning slaves and implying he used them for his science experiments is the focus. With absolutely ZERO evidence to back up their assertions.

The Smithsonian tried to save face this week by claiming they are committed to an “unbiased presentation of facts and history.”

Given how Ben Franklin’s role as one of our key Founders is being treated by the Smithsonian, what they ARE committed to is a very BIASED presentation of their chosen facts. Which includes this “announcement” of the 250th Anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. 

What the Smithsonian is peddling is an insult to our American history and one more way the left is working to undermine this Republic. 

Feature Photo Credit: Benjamin Franklin via iStock, cropped and modified