President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on the Smithsonian Institution that targets funding to programs that contain what he calls “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”

The order directs the vice president to eliminate what he finds “improper” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.

The order is vague but suggests Trump is seeking to purge elements of what conservatives view as a revisionist history of the US that places systemic racism at the heart of its narrative.

Trump recently signed an executive order targeting Smithsonian Institutions ordering them to "eliminate improper, divide, or anti-American ideology."

President Trump targeted the Smithsonian Institution and especially its National Museum of African American History and Culture with an executive order.

A partially destroyed monument to Confederate general Albert Pike in Washington D.C.'s Judiciary Square, targeted by protesters in June 2020. Photo: Alex Wroblewski/ President Trump has ordered a federal review of monuments toppled in the wake of George Floyd's murder,

President Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. It aims at eliminating what the president calls “improper ideology” from the American Historical narrative,

President Trump says he isn't ruling out the possibility of seeking a 3rd term in office. And, an executive order targets the Smithsonian Institution to restore "sanity to American history."

It’s a declaration of war,’ one historian says of Trump’s attempt to excavate ‘divisive ideology’ from the historic museum institution.