Democratic Congressman Jonathan Jackson declared Thursday that President Trump is committing “acts of violence” through renovations of Washington memorials and changes involving the Smithsonian.
The accusation turned a dispute over buildings, exhibits, and historical messaging into a full blown political spectacle.
Jackson compared the administration’s work in the nation’s capital with the war in Iran, strikes against narcoterrorists in the Western Hemisphere, and encounters involving ICE agents and violent left wing protesters.
He also pointed to renovations involving the East Wing and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Representatives Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, Jonathan Jackson of Illinois, and Kweisi Mfume of Maryland appeared at the press conference with American Historical Association executive director Sarah Weicksel.
They announced legislation called the “Smithsonian Integrity Act.”
The bill seeks to prevent the Trump administration from removing left wing political messaging and revisionist history from the National Museum of American History.
Its introduction comes as the administration moves forward with temporary informational signs outside the museum.
Those signs would warn visitors about the viewpoints promoted by museum curators.
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Burgum explained the administration’s reasoning in a letter notifying Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about the planned change.
“The informational signage will provide visitors with important context about the exhibits they are about to encounter and the personal viewpoints that the curators of the exhibits are seeking to advance,” Burgum wrote.
The White House previously released a 162 page report accusing the Smithsonian of rewriting and weaponizing history “as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.” The report focused on messaging found throughout exhibits at the National Museum of American History.
According to the report’s key findings, the museum’s exhibits contain activism targeting White people, illegal alien activism, and transgender activism.
The Trump administration’s effort would challenge that messaging and provide visitors with a warning before they enter the museum.
During Thursday’s press conference, the lawmakers were asked whether they feared Trump might “take advantage” of Congress being in recess to make additional changes.
Stansbury answered, “absolutely,” before launching into a personal attack on the president.
“I think that Donald Trump has demonstrated over and over again that when he is left unsupervised as a lonely, bitter, and, frankly, potentially mentally compromised individual, that he is completely unpredictable, and so we don’t know what he was capable of,” she said.
Jackson then added his own dramatic assessment of Trump and the administration.
“And I would add to that,” Jackson said, “the president’s proclivity, his inclination in this administration is towards violence.”
He applied that accusation directly to construction and renovation work in Washington.
“You’ve seen the violence on the buildings of the East Wing,” Jackson said before pointing to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovations.
Jackson proceeded to compare those projects with operations in several locations.
“He’s done this now with the Strait of Hormuz, he’s done this in the Red Sea, he’s gone into Nigeria, he’s gone into the boat taps,” he added.
He then broadened the allegation to include ICE and the administration’s Smithsonian plans.
“I mean, so yes, he’s put violence on the streets. He’s killed people through the ICE agency in Minnesota, and we’re saying that this is an act of violence, of going into the museum and trying to replace truth with lies.”
The remarkable performance placed renovations, museum signs, military operations, narcoterrorist strikes, and ICE encounters under Jackson’s sweeping accusation of violence.
A fight over how American history is presented thus became the stage for Democrats to portray changes at a museum as an attack comparable to lethal force.
