Trump Executive Order Seeks to Gut Institute of Museum and Library Services

Trump Executive Order Seeks to Gut Institute of Museum and Library Services

Anexecutive ordersigned by President Donald Trump on March 14 mandates the elimination of non-statutory functions and a reduction of the statutory functions of seven governmental entities the president has deemed “unnecessary.” Among them are theInstitute of Museum and Library Services(IMLS), which provides vital funding to US museums, archives, and libraries, most crucially those in underserved and rural communities. The targeting of the IMLS does not come as a great surprise, as Trump has in the pastpublicly expressedhis aversion to reading and more recently telegraphed his desire to control artistic output and display viahis takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Artsand through anexecutive orderthat led the National Endowment for the Arts toprioritize fundingfor grantees whose projects focus on the US’s upcoming 250th anniversary.

“Eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to supporting museums directly undermines the will of the people and the critical roles museums play in American society,” wrote the American Alliance of Museums in asocial media post.The Art Newspaperreports that the IMLS last year distributed $266.7 million to US museums, libraries, and other related organizations, including the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, which received $343,521 in support of an internship and fellowship program, and the Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, which was awarded $10,350 to fund the development of new curricula for visiting schoolchildren.

“Americans have loved and relied on public, school and academic libraries for generations,” wrote the American Library Association in a statement. “By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration’s executive order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer.” Among the services mentioned by the ALA were early literacy development, veterans’ telehealth spaces, STEM programs and workforce development training, and small business support.

The other entities affected by the order are the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness; the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; the Minority Business Development Agency; and the United States Agency for Global Media, which funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia and oversees the international broadcasting state media network Voice of America. AWhite House statementdescribed the gutting of VOA as “ensur[ing] taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”

“VOA promotes freedom and democracy around the world by telling America’s story and by providing objective and balanced news and information, especially for those living under tyranny,” wrote the agency’s director, Michael Abramowitz, in a social media post quoted in theNew York Times.

Founded in 1942 as an anti-propaganda tool aimed at Axis powers during World War II, VOA now produces digital, TV, and radio content in forty-eight languages for affiliated stations across the globe, aiming its content at non-Americans outside the US, particularly those living under oppressive regimes where freedom of the press is squelched.Vladimir Putin in 2017 signed a law decreeing the organization a “foreign agent,”and Russiablocked access to its websitefollowing its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Newsweekreports that Trump’s move to eliminate the agency was greeted positively by Russian state media.