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How the Smithsonian Became the Latest Front in Trump’s Culture War

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The original Star-Spangled Banner, seen in 1969 at what was then the National Museum of History and Technology, now called the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution Archives In November 2021, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened an exhibit called “The Electric Dr. Franklin,” describing “Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering contributions to electrical science.” The exhibit explained that, prior to becoming an abolitionist, he had enslaved people in his household. “Benjamin Franklin’s remarkable scientific accomplishments were, in part, enabled by slavery,” it declared.  The exhibit speculated that Franklin may have used enslaved people in his electrical research. “Franklin wrote about experiments in which he took shocks and used family and friends in these ways, although he seldom identified who in particular assisted him,” stated the exhibit, which closed in 2025 but can still be found online . “Indentured servants ...
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Susan Collins Dismissed Our Reporting as Old News. Some of Her Claims Aren’t True.

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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at the U.S. Capitol in August Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images As the scandal over Susan Collins’ relationship with Hawaii defense contractor Navatek became the central issue in her hotly contested senate campaign, she and her top aides mustered a defense with a series of incorrect and misleading claims. Read More The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way On Tuesday, ProPublica published an investigation into the senior senator from Maine’s relationship with Martin Kao, the former Navatek CEO and a major donor who told law enforcement he exchanged campaign cash for government contracts. His confession came after his guilty plea for campaign finance and loan fraud. The ProPublica story revealed that the FBI had been circling the senator, her top aides and a pro-Collins super PAC in recent years, asking questions about their relationshi...
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The Federal Agency That’s Supposed to Protect Consumers Just Made Another Business-Friendly Move

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The Trump administration announced it would stop publishing complaint narratives submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Every year, millions of complaints flow to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from people across the country. The complaints, which range in focus from debt collection to credit reporting to payday loans and more, long served as a window into Americans’ gripes and struggles with various companies. For over a decade, consumers could opt in to have what they wrote published as public information in a CFPB database. But last month, the Trump administration announced that it would stop publishing those complaint narratives , a decision that aligns the agency with corporations that have critiqued the system for years.  “Publishing such narratives in the Database provides a less-than-representative sample of one-sided experiences,” the CFPB said in a press release. In the big picture, the move...
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The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way

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Beatrice Caciotti for ProPublica. Source images: U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ official Facebook page. In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising. Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek. A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine. Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation. Government contractors are banned from making political contributions. M...
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