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Fox News
37 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump White House calls out Smithsonian for pushing 'one-sided, divisive political narratives'
EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is turning its attention to the Smithsonian Institution, accusing the taxpayer-funded museum complex of using federal dollars to promote what it calls "one-sided, divisive political narratives" that fail to honor the greatness of the American story. White House official Lindsey Halligan blasted content currently on display at the National Museum of American History's Entertainment Nation exhibit in an exclusive email to Fox News exhibit, which explores American pop culture, has drawn internal and external criticism for what some see as a politically loaded interpretation of cultural milestones. "American taxpayers should not be funding institutions that undermine our country or promote one-sided, divisive political narratives," Halligan said. "The Smithsonian Institution should present history in a way that is accurate, balanced, and consistent with the values that make the United States of America exceptional."DONALD TRUMP FIRES NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY DIRECTOR FOR BEING 'STRONG SUPPORTER' OF DEI The White House statement comes on the heels of several striking examples from the exhibit. One placard, featured alongside a 1923 circus poster, reads: "Under the big top, circuses expressed the colonial impulse to claim dominion over the world." Another, describing early American entertainment, declares: "One of the earliest defining traits of entertainment in the United States was extraordinary violence." The exhibit reframes iconic American characters through a critical, politically-charged lens. On The Lone Ranger, the display states: "The White title character's relationship with Tonto resembled how the U.S. government imagined itself the world's Lone Ranger." Mickey Mouse, a beloved American cultural icon, is not spared either. A display for the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie states, "Mickey challenged authority, but not everyone was in on the joke." It continues: "Mickey Mouse debuted as the deckhand 'Steamboat Willie' in 1928, amidst a rising anxiety felt by many that modern living and city life were eroding family and community ties and loosening moral codes… But the new character's outsized facial features, white gloves, and trickster temperament were vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy." In reference to the Indiana Jones film series, another panel reads: "His character embodied a confident righteousness that, in many ways, captured the essence of the 1980s" above another subhead referencing President Ronald Reagan's famous speech, asking, "Are you better off?"KENT STATE STUDENT'S VIOLENT ANTI-TRUMP ART DISPLAY SPURS OUTRAGE One panel calls Magnum, P.I. a challenge to the "popular perceptions of Vietnam veterans as damaged misfits." A section on Jon Stewart's Daily Show refers to it as "the go-to for viewers who mistrusted politicians and the reporting process." Another panel highlights the late pop star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez and frames her cultural impact through identity politics. "Selena got us talking about identity," with a quote from the late singer reading, "I feel very proud to be Mexican." The text goes on to say her work "cast a light on the longstanding cultural and growing political influence of Mexican American and Latinx communities within the United States." "The examples [Fox News Digital] highlighted from the National Museum of American History are part of the problem the Trump Administration aims to fix," Halligan said. "Framing American culture as inherently violent, imperialist, or racist does not reflect the greatness of our nation or the millions of Americans who have contributed to its progress." Halligan confirmed that a top-to-bottom content review is already underway, with input from senior Smithsonian leaders and the Board of Regents. "We are working with leadership at the Smithsonian to audit and review all content at the museums," she said, "and we are committed to ensuring that such content honors our country's founding principles, tells the stories of American heroes, and does not promote fringe or activist ideologies masquerading as history." She added, "We will provide updates on this audit as our progress unfolds." The Smithsonian Institution responded to Fox News Digital with the following brief written statement: "The museum is committed to continuous and rigorous scholarship and research and unbiased presentation of facts and history. As such, and as previously announced, we are assessing content in Smithsonian museums and will make any necessary changes to ensure our content meets our standards." The Institution did not answer specific questions regarding who authored the Entertainment Nation exhibit, whether outside academic consultants or activist organizations were involved, or who made the decision to present all exhibit text bilingually in English and Spanish. The controversy comes amid a broader push by President Donald Trump to reshape cultural institutions he says have veered too far left. In March, Trump issued an executive order directing the Board of Regents to eliminate "improper, divisive or anti-American ideology" from Smithsonian museums. He accused the institution of embracing what he called "a revisionist movement" aimed at "undermining the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light." The Board of Regents includes the vice president, the chief justice of the United States, six members of Congress, and nine citizen regents. Vice President J.D. Vance and Congressman Carlos Giménez, both recent appointees, have advocated for an expedited review of Smithsonian content. Giménez, in a prior interview with The Wall Street Journal, confirmed tensions at the board's June meeting over how quickly to proceed, though ultimately a compromise was reached. The Smithsonian receives approximately two-thirds of its $1 billion annual budget from federal appropriations. The Entertainment Nation exhibit opened in December 2022 and was billed as a permanent exhibition to "celebrate the power of popular culture to shape and reflect history." It is housed in a prime space on the museum's west wing and features artifacts and media from movies, television, sports, and music. While the museum's stated goal is to explore how entertainment intersects with American identity, the Trump administration argues that it instead uses culture to smuggle in ideology often at odds with the values most Americans hold. "Americans deserve a Smithsonian that inspires national pride, tells the truth, and reflects the greatness of this country," Halligan said. "Not one that serves as an agent for social change and cultural subversion."
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How long will you wait for Social Security help? Why it's anybody's guess.
Members of Congress and advocates say the Social Security Administration is providing the public with misleading information about how long it will take to resolve their problems. Over the last several weeks, the agency has stopped making public 34 real-time performance metrics about things like how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new senior benefits or social security benefits take to be approved. The metrics have been used for years to show how time-consuming it can be to reach a live person at certain locations or through the national 1-800 number, and as an accountability measure for the agency. Instead the webpage now emphasizes how quickly problems can be resolved online, and says the "average speed of answer," which excludes callback wait time, is 19.2 minutes. USA TODAY reporters called Social Security's 1-800 line multiple times over several days and found the wait times to be consistently over an hour. Multiple times they did not reach a live person before the line disconnected with no warning. Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano told members of Congress June 25 that three out of four people who call that 1-800 number use a call-back feature so they are not waiting on the phone. He said he took the wait time metric off the website because he thought it kept people from calling. "If you show that you got an hour and a half wait time, well people are going to be discouraged and not call," he said. When California Rep. Judy Chu asked him to reinstate the metrics so members of Congress and the public can have an accurate barometer of the agency's performance, Bisignano avoided answering the question until Chu's time to ask questions expired. "How can you know how the Social Security Administration is doing with regard to answering calls or processing benefit applications unless you have these metrics? You have to compare them over time so it is shocking that they would just remove that data if they are so confident about all of these metrics that he was talking about," Chu told USA TODAY after the hearing. Social Security staffing was already at a ten-year low when President Donald Trump took office in January. Meanwhile, the number of new applicants has skyrocketed as Baby Boomers retire. That meant wait times to reach employees by phone, email or in person were already high when the Trump administration began to slash staff amidst efforts to downsize government. In February, the agency announced plans to cut 7,000 of the agency's 57,000 employees ‒ more than 10% of staff ‒ in response to President Trump's executive orders. At least 3,000 employees have already accepted buyout agreements. Average wait times to reach a live person by crept up to 90 minutes by early May. A May 22 screenshot of the Social Security website's live metrics, preserved by the Internet Archive, shows that call wait time was 1 hour and 46 minutes, and call back wait time was 1 hour and 44 minutes. It also showed the number of people on hold and current number waiting for a call back. Along with the 1-800 wait time information, the Social Security metrics page also included processing time for retirement, survivor, and Medicare benefits. For disability benefit applicants, which can take more than a year to get a decision, there was information about processing time, reconsideration time, and appeals adjudication time. The average speed of answer was shown as 20.3 minutes, based on an average of monthly data from the last year. That speed is similar to data the agency previously made public. Then, on June 6 the comprehensive dashboard showing live metrics was removed from the Social Security Administration's website, showing as 'under maintenance' until June 16. When the dashboard page went back up on June 16, it no longer included the live call wait time data or information on the number of people on hold or waiting for a call back, instead just listing the average speed of answer excluding call-back wait time as 19.2 minutes over the last year. "We are updating our performance metrics to reflect the real-life experiences of the people we serve and highlight the fastest ways our customers can get service," Social Security spokesperson Stephen McGraw said in a statement to USA TODAY. "It is critical that the agency measures what matters most to improve customer service while providing all Americans the information they need to select the service channel that works best for them." Concerned that the information now available on the website didn't match what her staff was hearing from constituents, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's staff began conducting its own test of the 1-800 number, making hourly phone calls from June 12 through June 20. Warren leads Senate Democrat's Social Security War Room, which seeks to draw attention to changes the Trump administration is making to Social Security. In a letter Warren sent to Bisignano late on June 25, she called the results of her office survey "deeply troubling." Compared to the number available online, wait times averaged nearly an hour and 45 minutes and often exceeded three hours. Data from the office survey showed that in 50 calls, more than 50% were never answered by a human. The majority ended when the caller was placed on hold and then the call dropped. Of calls that were answered, 32% had wait times exceeding two hours. The average wait time was 102 minutes. "These delays are unacceptable ‒ and made even worse by your misleading claims that service has actually improved under your watch," she wrote in her letter, shared first with USA TODAY. "Service disruptions and barriers make it harder for beneficiaries to receive their Social Security benefits ‒ payments which are the primary source of income for more than half of America's seniors." More: Social security employees warn of delays: What the new priorities means for your benefits Warren accused Bisignano of lying about improving wait times at the agency in a separate statement to USA TODAY. "Donald Trump and DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) took a chainsaw to Social Security, leaving Americans waiting hours just to get help ‒ and that's if their call is answered at all. Instead of owning that failure, Commissioner Bisignano and his team are trying to cover it up," she said. Taking data offline makes it harder for Congress and Americans to know what the agency is doing, said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group that wants to expand the agency. The information that is now on the website is an "apples to oranges" comparison to what was previously available, she said. Along with the call wait time, there is less detail on how long it will take for new applications to be processed and for disability claims to be appealed, and less about how wait times vary geographically, she said. There is "zero" evidence that wait times have suddenly gone down, she said. "It would defy logic for it to get easier given how they've hollowed out the agency, every part of the agency." Altman said the agency's lack of transparency about wait times raises questions about other information they are making public. And, if the website says the average hold is 19.2 minutes, but they are on the phone for much longer, it is hard for Americans to tell how widespread the problem is, Altman said. "The American people are getting frustrated, but they don't know if it is just happening to them," she said. More: Social Security wait times were already long under Biden. They're even longer under Trump. Jen Burdick, supervising attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, said they haven't seen a reduction in call times. "Social Security attorneys and paralegals from our office call SSA dozens of times every day. We are uniformly finding that we can't get placed into the queue, either because of system outages, phone disconnects, or AI chatbot issues. When we do get put into the queue, wait times seem to be up from last year ‒ sometimes more than an hour. More importantly, we're having a hard time resolving issues because of SSA training issues when we do reach staff," she told USA TODAY. We want to hear from people affected by or who have knowledge of the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the government, including actions by DOGE. Know something others should? Reach out at swire@ or Signal at sarahdwire.71 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How long will you wait for Social Security help? Anybody's guess.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Unusual Social Security email touts Trump bill. Here's what to know.
Social Security beneficiaries are accustomed to getting occasional emails from the program about matters like a benefits statement, but many were perplexed to get a different kind of message from the Social Security Administration late in the evening on Thursday, July 3. "The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans," the email, reviewed by USA TODAY, said. The message is referring to the legislative package of Trump's priorities for cuts to taxes and spending on social programs that was passed by the House of Representatives earlier that day. The agency also published a news release titled "Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors" that mirrored the email. Issuing an overtly political statement is unusual for the agency that oversees Social Security, which makes monthly payments to 73 million retirees, their survivors, and people with disabilities. "It's completely unprecedented," said Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, a left-leaning advocacy organization focused on retirement benefits. "It's an enormous breach of trust." Lawson contends that the email praising Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" violates the Hatch Act, a law against partisan political activity by federal government employees. The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to inquiries seeking clarification. The White House referred USA TODAY's request to SSA. During his campaign, Trump promised to eliminate income taxes on Social Security benefits. Instead, the just-passed bill − which Trump will sign in the late afternoon on July 4 − creates a $6,000 federal income tax deduction for Americans 65 and older. Since Social Security benefits are often a large part of seniors' income, some portion of those benefits will now be untaxed for those who qualify for the deduction. "It reduces the amount of Social Security benefits subject to tax, but it's not just for Social Security," explains Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a center-right think tank. 'This is a historic step forward for America's seniors,' said Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive appointed by Trump. 'For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans. By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump's promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they've earned." There are many Social Security recipients and seniors who won't get a tax cut, however. About 5% of retired Social Security beneficiaries are ages 62 to 64. There are also deceased workers' survivors and disabled workers who are younger than 65. Among those 65 and older, many have incomes below the standard deduction of $14,600 per person or $29,200 per couple, so they already aren't paying income taxes anyway. At the other end of the spectrum, the deduction phases out for individuals making more than $75,000 or couples earning more than $150,000. "Lower-income earners benefit less than middle and upper-middle income households," Watson said. On average, seniors in the bottom 20% income will save just 0.1% on their tax bill, according to the Tax Policy Foundation's analysis, about one-tenth of what those in the middle of the income distribution will save. "It's been marketed as tax relief for seniors, but a lot of seniors are going to be surprised when they find out it doesn't apply to them," Watson said. "I'm getting asked all the time by folks what this actually means for their tax situation." And while some will soon benefit from lower taxes, the lost tax revenue could trigger a future automatic benefit cut for all beneficiaries. That's because Social Security benefits aren't taxed like normal income. Instead of being used as general revenues, they go specifically into the trust funds that provide a backstop for Medicare and Social Security. The Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance trust funds were on track to be depleted by 2033, but now that date will be moved up to 2032, because the senior citizen tax deduction will lop an estimated $30 billion per year off the tax revenues those trust funds collect, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That, in turn, will trigger a future automatic benefit cut of 24% to all recipients, the centrist think tank projects. Those problems will only grow worse, Watson noted, if Congress renews, increases or makes permanent the senior tax deduction, when it expires in 2028. "It's a mixed bag for seniors, because some seniors will get some tax relief; the cost of that, though, is borne by the entire Social Security system," Lawson said. Critics are pouncing on the message arriving at a time when the Social Security Administration has been suffering from problems with customer service. The Trump administration has reduced the agency's staff and instituted new rules on identification for applicants, resulting in average wait times that have ballooned to 90 minutes. In June, the agency stopped making public real-time performance metrics about how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new benefits take to be approved, USA TODAY reported on June 26. Multiple times, USA TODAY reporters called Social Security's 1-800 line they did not reach a live person before the line disconnected with no warning. Contributing: Sarah D. Wire This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Unusual Social Security Administration email touts Big, Beautiful Bill
