Donald Trump has a surprising new target in his purge of what he calls “anti-American ideology” in the nation’s top cultural institutions: the National Zoo.
In an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” signed Thursday, Trump directed Vice President JD Vance to crack down on the Smithsonian Institution by removing “improper ideology” from its museums, education and research centers, and the zoo.
The move is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Founded in 1889, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute spans 163 acres in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park and houses over 2,100 animals across nearly 400 species, according to its website. They include Asian elephants, Sumatran tigers, sea lions, orangutans, and Panamanian golden frogs.
It’s unclear what exactly Trump plans to gut at the National Zoo—though with its most famous residents on loan from China as part of what Beijing calls “panda diplomacy,” the giant pandas might want to start packing.
Bao Li and Qing Bao, a male-female duo, arrived in Washington from China in October 2024 as part of an agreement announced earlier between the U.S. and China. Their arrival followed the return of three other pandas previously on loan.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Smithsonian Institution for comment.
In his executive order, Trump claimed that Americans have witnessed “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” over the past decade by “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
“This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light,” the order said.
The Smithsonian Institution, “once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement,” has in recent years “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” the president said in his order.
It comes after Trump took over the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., sparking an angry backlash from artists enraged by the president’s overhaul of the performing arts center.
