Maryland Gov. Wes Moore blasted President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that targeted the Smithsonian museum over content that Trump claims promotes so-called “divisive ideology.”
“I just find it deeply disrespectful that their definition of making America great again is actually challenging some of the things that makes America great in the first place,” Moore, the third Black governor to ever be elected in the U.S. and first Black governor of Maryland, said while appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order, which called for the removal of “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.”
Trump’s order specifically called out the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and threatened to pull the rug out on federal funding for content that he claims “divides Americans by race.”
The order came after the Trump administration has made sweeping efforts to reverse Biden-era initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaking to host Dana Bash, Moore said that America is an “ecosystem where we’ve invited people from all around the world to be a part of” the country’s journey.
“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history,” he said. “Loving your country does not mean dismantling those who have helped to make this country so powerful and make America so unique in world history in the first place.”
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Moore went on to say that we need to “put a core focus not on eliminating nor erasing history” but instead on lifting it up and celebrating it. He then added that the “American mosaic” is “one of the things that makes us [as a country] so powerful.”
Watch a clip from Moore’s appearance on “State of the Union” below.