INTERNACIONAL
Smithsonian’s dark take on America exposed: Washington dubbed ‘town destroyer,’ Revolutionary War ‘dangerous’
NEW YORK — A Smithsonian museum in Manhattan presents a sharply critical account of George Washington, the Revolutionary War and America’s early years, while some historical context that complicates that narrative is omitted or given less prominent treatment, Fox News Digital found.
The findings come as the Smithsonian faces heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration over how it presents American history. President Donald Trump has ordered a review of the institution’s exhibits and educational materials as part of an effort to change what his administration says is an overly negative portrayal of the country’s history.
Fox News Digital visited the Manhattan branch of the National Museum of the American Indian earlier in September and found exhibits that emphasize the destruction suffered by Native communities while offering comparatively little context about the conflicts and events surrounding American military campaigns.
One display near the center of the museum’s «Native New York» exhibit features an illustration of Washington’s profile — similar to the one that appears on quarters — over a label that reads «town destroyer.»
TRUMP GIVES SMITHSONIAN DAYS TO REPLACE ‘STRANGE MODERNIST SCULPTURE’ WITH FOUNDING FATHER
The description underneath the image recounts how «American armies destroyed 40 Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) towns and burned their harvests while residents fled,» noting that «the Haudenosaunee still call George Washington and all U.S. presidents Hanadahguyus. The name means ‘town destroyer.’»
The panel does not mention the raids on American settlements that led to the campaign or explain why Washington ordered the attack.
«The American destruction of the Six Nations’ homelands came as a result of the destructive raids carried out by the Indians and American loyalists on the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania in 1778,» an excerpt from the National Park Service reads. «The raids crippled the American Continental Army by depriving it of food and manpower and spread terror by destroying frontier settlements and taking prisoners.»
The exhibit comes as the Trump administration continues its broader dispute with the Smithsonian over how the institution presents American history. Specifically, the president has taken issue with the institution allegedly seeking to divert the telling of American history «away from America’s Founding and the Founders and towards a narrative of a deeply flawed creation of the country.»
SMITHSONIAN SHOWDOWN INTENSIFIES AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ISSUES A STARK NEW WARNING
The administration has threatened changes to Smithsonian funding and federal-agency support as it presses the institution to alter what it describes as divisive or historically inaccurate portrayals of the country.
Many of the other exhibits in the museum take a similar line to the display on Washington, highlighting the alleged brutality of American settlers while downplaying the violence of natives.
One placard, recounting the history of the Iroquois between 1779 and 1804 from the point of view of a native woman, states that «it was peaceful, she said, until the white men began their revolution.»
For roughly 100 years, between 1609 and 1701, the Iroquois were engaged in a series of conflicts with other native tribes over access to animal pelts.
Even before the Trump administration’s current dispute with the Smithsonian, the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., attracted criticism over how it presents American history.
«In recent years, I have been chronicling the evolution of the ‘identity museum’ … designed to affirm a particular group’s claims, outline its accomplishments, boost its pride,» a cultural critic wrote for the New York Times in 2010. «The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington — a pioneering example of the genre — jettisons Western scholarship and tells its own story, leading one tribe to solemnly describe its earliest historical milestone: ‘Birds teach people to call for rain.’»
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«Through a gauze of romance, that museum portrays an impossibly peace-loving, harmonious, homogeneous, pastoral world that preceded the invasion of white people — a vision with far less detail and insight than the old natural history museums once provided,» the critic continued.
The exhibits acknowledge some conflicts involving Native tribes but focus far more heavily on the violence inflicted on them than on the events that led to the fighting.
The museum also maintains a catalog of online materials geared towards middle school students that generally take the same editorial line.
Teachers, for instance, are instructed to show a video to students that opens by saying that «the American War for independence was such a disruptive and dangerous project.» It goes on to frame the actions of American colonists negatively, referring to them as trespassers and squatters.
WATCH: SMITHSONIAN DIRECTOR ADMITS SHE SEES HISTORY AS ‘TOOL’ OF ‘SOCIAL JUSTICE’ AFTER EXPLOSIVE HEARING
In several displays dealing with the Revolutionary War, the exhibit portrays American actions toward Native allies in sharply negative terms.
A video display near the beginning of the exhibit claims, unequivocally, that an American soldier shot and killed Chief White Eyes, a Lenape chief who had allied with the Americans. The cause of White Eyes’ death, however, is historically contested — something the museum outlines in relatively small text underneath the video display, which states that White Eyes was «probably» murdered by an American soldier.
The museum is housed within the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, a building formerly used for collecting trade duties and named after the founding father to commemorate his role as the first secretary of the Treasury.
HISTORIAN BLASTS SMITHSONIAN’S ACTIVISM SHIFT AFTER FIRST VISIT IN OVER A DECADE: ‘COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLACE’
Just before exiting the building, visitors pass a museum store where several books present sharply critical accounts of American history. «An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States,» for instance, is displayed prominently on the store shelves.
Among other things, the book criticizes Americans for having a «cult-like» dedication to the Constitution, suggests that the United States was founded upon White supremacy and genocide and claims that the federal government is still carrying out ethnic cleansing against natives. A graphic novel adaptation of the text marketed toward younger readers was also available.
Other titles on display included «Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in US History,» «An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States,» a tome about the «two spirit» gender identity and a children’s picture book about Deb Haaland, President Joe Biden’s interior secretary.
The Smithsonian did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.
smithsonian, new york city, museums exhibits, politics, history
INTERNACIONAL
Lula prepara su estrategia para enfrentar a Flávio Bolsonaro en el balotaje y apunta a aumentar la participación electoral
El presidente de Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, se enfrenta a un escenario adverso de cara a la segunda vuelta electoral, después de quedar detrás de Flávio Bolsonaro en los comicios de este domingo.
El mandatario se reunía este lunes en Brasilia con su equipo de campaña para empezar a diagramar una nueva estrategia, distinta de la que se implementó durante los últimos meses.
Lula ya anticipó el cambio de etapa frente a sus seguidores y allegados el domingo por la noche, en el hotel de San Pablo donde la dirigencia esperó los resultados. Allí reconoció que desde hoy comenzaba “una nueva campaña”.
Flávio Bolsonaro ganó la primera vuelta con 47,03% de los votos válidos, mientras que Lula obtuvo 45,16%. El balotaje está prevista para el próximo 25 de octubre.
“Las claves son dos: disputar la segunda vuelta con la premisa de cambiar para mejor y negativizar a Flávio, con foco en los cambios que hizo en el pasado su padre, Jair Bolsonaro, y la idea de un cambio para peor”, dijo a TN el analista brasileño Antonio Lavareda, presidente honorario de la Asociación Brasileña de Investigadores Electorales.
Elecciones en Brasil: la nueva estrategia de Lula para el balotaje
La nueva estrategia de Lula tendrá tres ejes centrales. En primer lugar, la campaña buscará confrontar de manera directa con Flávio Bolsonaro y establecer comparaciones entre los dos espacios políticos.
El discurso del vicepresidente brasileño, Geraldo Alckmin, luego de conocerse los resultados, dio una muestra de la estrategia que podría desplegar el oficialismo durante las próximas semanas.
La intención será contrastar al lulismo con el bolsonarismo, incluso recuperando temas de la gestión del expresidente Jair Bolsonaro, como el manejo de la pandemia de coronavirus, y enfrentar esos antecedentes con las políticas implementadas por el actual Gobierno.
Bolsonaro
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As Israel marks three years since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, stories of bravery and self-sacrifice continue to emerge from within a nation grappling with recovery and rehabilitation.
For Nil Kirsht-Levi, the three years since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre have been defined by devastating personal loss, an agonizing wait for her sister who was taken hostage and brought to Gaza and an unwavering commitment to caring for fellow survivors of the cross-border terror attack.
Kirsht-Levi, a nurse with Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit Southern District, who lives in Kibbutz Magen, spent the morning of Oct. 7 treating patients remotely from her safe room while trying to protect her three children as terrorists invaded the community and went from house to house. At the same time, she desperately texted her sister, Rimon Buchshtab-Kirsht, who lived with her husband in nearby Kibbutz Nirim.
FREED HOSTAGE ROM BRASLAVSKI DETAILS ABUSE, STARVATION DURING 738 DAYS IN GAZA CAPTIVITY
IDF forces outside Nil Kirscht’s home on the morning of Oct 8, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of the family. (Kirscht family)
«I lost more than 30 patients that day, more than 200 people I knew, and around 100 people I knew were kidnapped,» Kirsht-Levi told Fox News Digital. «I’m lucky to have a job that saves me, healthy children, a healthy husband. We work every day to recover and rehabilitate ourselves. Every day, we fall and get back up, but we are here — for ourselves, for others and we have won,» she continued.
«We should never forget, but we must move forward, live every moment and keep going. It’s a privilege to be alive,» she added.
Nil reunites with her sister Rimon upon her return from captivity, December 4, 2023. (Nil Kirsht-Levi)
On Oct. 7, Kirsht-Levi’s sister sent a message saying she could hear Arabic and that terrorists had entered her home. Weeks of agonizing uncertainty followed before Kirsht-Levi saw her sister alive in a Hamas video. She had campaigned for her release and ultimately welcomed her home 53 days later, emaciated and covered in scars, as part of a ceasefire deal in November 2023.
Her sister’s husband, her brother-in-law, Yagev Buchshtab however, had been murdered by the terrorists.
During the 2023 Palestinian terror assault, launched on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Michaela Koretsky, a midwife with Clalit’s Southern District, improvised lifesaving treatments for wounded members of Kibbutz Alumim.
Like so many others, Koretsky was jolted awake by air raid sirens at 6:29 a.m. that fateful day, as Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israel, providing cover for terrorists as they crossed the border in the ensuing invasion. She rushed with her husband and children to the shelter, where she received a message from Eran, a member of the kibbutz’s civil defense squad, asking if she was home. Eran then began bringing wounded kibbutz members to her for first aid.
Michaela and her daughter hide in the safe room for hours on the morning of October 7, while she was tending to the wounded in her living room—and even saving one who was in critical condition. (Courtesy of the Koretsky family)
ISRAELI OCTOBER 7 SURVIVORS CONQUER TRAUMA ALONGSIDE LEGENDARY ROCK ICONS IN POWERFUL NEW DOCUMENTARY
«When they entered the house carrying Amichai, he was covered in blood… I switched into nurse mode,» she said.
Koretsky had Amichai placed on the floor as they continued to hear gunfire outside the kitchen window. She improvised bandages and prepared an IV while staying in contact with an emergency room doctor from Soroka Medical Center who was also in the kibbutz. He confirmed that Amichai was stable.
Then Eyal was brought in. He had been shot, with one of the bullets lodged in his lung. After Koretsky placed him on an IV and administered additional oxygen, it became clear that he needed to be evacuated.
Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. (Hatem Khaled/File Photo/Reuters)
«We needed to save lives, so I switched my brain into action mode and did what needed to be done. The whole time I did not think that the terrorists would enter my house. I knew one of my children was afraid they would figure out where the wounded were being taken and come after us, but I told myself, ‘I am protected. It will not happen,’» she told Fox News Digital.
Her husband, Tzviki, accompanied by members of the kibbutz’s civil defense squad, reached his car and alone he evacuated the wounded under fire to Netivot, where they were transferred to waiting ambulances. From there, both Amichai and Eyal were taken to Soroka Medical Center for further treatment.
Prof. Shlomi Codish, director of the hospital in Beersheba, said he made three lifesaving decisions early on Oct. 7 that shaped the response throughout the day.
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Prof. Shlomi Codish, the Director of Clalit-Soroka Medical Center on the day of the Iranian missile strike, June 2025. (Clalit-Soroka Medical Center)
First, he and his team decided not to send the night shift home, allowing the hospital to begin the day with twice its normal staffing level. At 7:45 a.m., they declared a mass-casualty incident, despite not yet knowing how many wounded would arrive and alerted all available staff to report to the hospital. Finally, they ordered additional blood supplies in anticipation of the surge of casualties.
«We usually start the shift with 50 units of blood in our blood bank. By the end of the day, we had given 250 units. If we hadn’t ordered additional blood early that morning, we might have run out and people may have died,» Codish told Fox News Digital.
Codish said the hospital faced several overwhelming challenges throughout the day, beginning with the sheer number of wounded being brought to the hospital.
«In the first 24 hours, we received 674 wounded people. At the peak, we received more than 80 in a single hour, with an average of just 40 seconds between wounded people arriving,» he said.
«This was one of the largest mass-casualty events resulting from terror in human history. The hospital itself was also under fire, with dozens of incoming missile warnings from the Gaza Strip, while attacks were taking place simultaneously at a very large number of sites,» he added.
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A woman reacts as the community of Kibbutz Kfar Aza commemorates their members who were killed, taken hostage and who died in captivity, following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas terrorists, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, Oct. 16, 2025. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
The second challenge was the immediate impact of the invasion on hospital staff themselves. «Everyone who came in left a family at home that was potentially under attack. They got into their cars and drove through air-raid sirens in areas that weren’t protected, at significant personal risk, to come in and save lives,» he said.
Another major challenge was maintaining care inside the hospital as the number of casualties surged. The hospital began the day at full capacity, forcing staff to quickly free up intensive care beds and operating rooms for incoming patients. With roads around the hospital unsafe, transferring patients to other facilities was not an option in the first hours of the attack, while sending ambulances into the field risked exposing them to Hamas ambushes.
«When you see babies or children with direct injuries, that is not something you typically see on a battlefield. We saw elderly people with severe wounds inflicted directly, with no protection,» Codish said, reflecting on the brutality he witnessed that day.
«As a medical professional, what we saw was beyond words. Two babies suffering from dehydration after their parents were killed, simply waiting to be rescued — I defy anyone to find a word other than ‘evil’ to describe it,» he added.
anti semitism, israel, terrorism, hamas, conflicts
During a Sunday street festival in a notoriously liberal Maryland hotspot just across the Washington, D.C. border, some attendees told Digital they wouldn’t mind if the government seized their property, including their homes.
«Yeah, I mean broadly,» said Maryland resident Matt Volk when asked if he would support the government taking his home. «It’s highly situational, but I definitely think that there’s a lot of privately owned land and property that would be better put to use for public use, for resources and housing and things like that for people who are in need of things like that.»
Digital took to the streets during a rainy Sunday at the Takoma Park Street Festival to interview area residents about just how much power they would be willing to cede to the government as socialism becomes increasingly popular, especially among younger Americans.
Takoma Park is a liberal bastion just outside the nation’s capital, where homes and businesses are adorned with LGBT pride paraphernalia, along with decorations marking their support for other leftist causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.
YOUNG SWING-STATE VOTERS COZY UP TO DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS, SAY PARTY ESTABLISHMENT MUST ‘LEARN’ FROM DSA WINS
One attendee, Karen Irwin, sported a t-shirt that said «Auntifa: Making White men uncomfortable since 1975.» She agreed with Volk’s sentiment.
«I mean, if we were all doing it, I’d be so game,» she said. «Do you know what I mean? And who’s coming to me? Is this a decision I’m making through democratic means? Then yes, yes, I would be so game. If I voted for it, sure.»
«You want to be able to keep your property. From what time are we talking? From what in the history of this country? Is it just right now, from right now moving forward, whatever it is you have?» Irwin asked. «Or, you know, 100 years ago, when someone else had it. But the government might have taken it away for whatever reason.»
A poll from March found that 38% of those asked said it was a good idea to move away from capitalism and towards socialism.
SHOCKING PERCENTAGE OF DEMOCRATS IDENTIFY AS ‘DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS’ ACCORDING TO NEW POLL: ‘TOXIC POLICIES’
Very liberal voters (66%) and Democrats under age 45 (66%) are those most likely to think moving to socialism would be good. More than half of all Democrats (55%), Black voters (55%) and those under age 30 (53%) also favor moving away from capitalism.
While the majority of Americans, especially Republicans and conservatives, still reject socialism, only 51% say capitalism is working well. The other 49% say it isn’t.
A third person at the Takoma Park street fair on Sunday said the government seizure of his home was a possibility.
«I don’t know that I would necessarily love it, but I mean, if it was something that was beneficial I’d at least consider it,» said Jaw Blake, a Maryland resident.
«Nobody wants what they have to be taken away from them, but there is something we said about like you can set up things so that they’re available for everybody.»
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE. YOUNG AMERICANS ARE FALLING IN LOVE … WITH SOCIALISM
Not everyone interviewed by Digital was entirely convinced of the idea of government seizure and redistribution of private property.
Jenny Sniderman said she doesn’t want to give up her property to the government, but that it wasn’t out of the question if she was paid to do so.
«Of course I don’t want to give up my private property,» she said. «Are they going to reimburse me fairly? That would be helpful in making my choice.»
Steve Ney isn’t in favor of his home being seized by the government, but he advocated for another socialist policy that recently was implemented in New York City by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
NEW YORK CITY LANDLORDS WARN AMERICAN DREAM IS SLIPPING AWAY UNDER SOCIALIST RENT POLICIES
«I think the idea of rent stabilization, for example, is an excellent idea where you limit the rate of increase in rent in order to help people stay in their homes,» he said.
New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-1 in July to halt increases in rent for one and two year leases on rent-stabilized apartments, enacting a core promise from socialist Mamdani’s agenda. The policy has faced legal challenges and backlash from property owners in the Big Apple.
Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) President James Whelan blasted Mamdani’s effort.
«The mayor’s report focuses on symptoms, not causes,» he told Digital in August. «New Yorkers are paying record-high rents because there is not enough housing, and many of the reported conditions are concentrated in heavily rent-stabilized buildings that are facing significant operational and financial challenges.»
MAMDANI RIPPED OVER RECORD-HIGH NYC RENTS WITH CRITICS POINTING TO POLICY THEY SAY IS FUELING CRISIS
One Takoma Park Street Festival attendee, Nina Gilden Seavy, a self-identified historian, outrightly rejected the idea that the government should be involved of distributing resources.
«I think that’s a ridiculous idea. I mean, that’s, it’s a fool’s errand,» she said.
«The idea that somehow we’re gonna be better off if the government is in charge of allocating all resources that sounds not in any way desirable.»
Fox News’ Victoria Balara and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
politics, socialism, maryland, democratic party
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