Why is a 3rd runner-up in a Miss Colorado pageant Trump official getting press for her opinion about a slavery exhibit?

...because this is the woman Trump chose to press his case about 'wokeness' in Smithsonian exhibits, a cynical effort which I don't believe ANYONE in the WH has the knowledge, ability, or care to make judgements about, not on ANY U.S. history; much less this person making judgements about black history exhibits in a museum.


Lindsey Halligan, special assistant to the president, fixes an earring at the end of an interview outside of the White House on Aug. 20.

Acyn @Acyn
Halligan: What I saw going through the museum personally was an overemphasis on slavery, and I think there should be an overemphasis on how far we’ve come. We should be able to take our kids, our students through the Smithsonian and be proud when we leave.

twitter.com/Acyn/status/1958232384475972043

...what are her qualifications, other than being a Trump syncophant who hung around the ghoulish crowd of orange flab worshipers at Mar a lago.

wiki:

___Halligan attended Holy Family High school, and after graduation attended Regis University in Denver and earned a degree in political science and broadcast journalism. She competed in the Miss Colorado USA pageant twice in 2009 she was a semifinalist, and in 2010 she was third runner up.

She attended Regis University, where she obtained her degree in politics. She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2014. Halligan was a partner at Cole, Scott and Kissane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and handled residential and commercial insurance claims.

Halligan was second chair to another lawyer defending an insurance company at a two-day trial against three Miami homeowners who had suffered damaged roofs. A judge would not award her attorneys fees because he ruled that her team did not act "in good faith."

Halligan has represented Donald Trump since 2022. By August 2022, she had never handled a federal case. She was at Mar-a-Lago during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, quickly became involved in Trump's lawsuit in October 2022 against CNN for allegedly comparing Trump to Hitler, and has been involved in his defense against the federal government in the classified documents case.

Halligan is the local counsel for the case spawned by the FBI's execution of a search warrant at Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago, which Halligan said came as a "huge surprise," in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and filed the Motions to Appear Pro Hac Vice for Evan Corcoran and James Trusty, initially on August 22, 2022. She was one of the few lawyers working for Trump who was on site during the FBI search. She said Trump's subsequent indictment goes "for the jugular".

Trump's Save America PAC paid Halligan $212,000 from June 2022 to June 2023.

In a March 2025 executive order, Trump tasked Halligan and Vice President J.D. Vance with removing "improper ideology" regarding portrayal of race in American history in the Smithsonian Institution. She currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Associate Staff Secretary in the Trump Administration.




Shanita Brackett is the acting director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Since joining the museum in 2016, Brackett has played a central role in shaping the museum’s growth and innovation.



Previously, Brackett served as the Walmart Assistant Director for Visitor and Guest Services, where she led a team of 125 staff and volunteers and implemented technology-driven strategies that enriched the experience of more than 3 million visitors. She also served as acting director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, where she launched the acclaimed exhibition, “A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC.” The exhibit spotlighted the role of arts education in shaping Black identity, creativity, and civic life.

She has also served as a program co-chair for Museums and the Web and the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council. As a member of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, she judges both the Webby and Anthem Awards.

Including her tenure at the Smithsonian, Brackett spent nearly two decades in public service, with a focus on science, communications, and program leadership. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia. Brackett continues to advocate for museum spaces as powerful platforms for lifelong learning, digital innovation, and public engagement.

https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/leadership


With noted historian Dr. John Hope Franklin (1915-2009) as its Founding Chairman beginning in 2005, the museum created a scholarly advisory committee to help shape its intellectual agenda, exhibition content and programming.

Michael Blakey, Professor of Archaeology, College of William & Mary and former Director of Investigation, Howard University, Skeletal Biology Lab

Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “America in the King Years”, a three-volume study of the Civil Rights Movement

Johnnetta B. Cole, Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and former President of Spelman College

Drew S. Days III, Professor of Law, Yale University, and former U.S. Solicitor General

Deborah L. Mack, Independent Museum and Academic Consultant and Curator, Savannah, Ga.

Alfred Moss, Professor of African American, U.S. Social and U.S. Religious History, University of Maryland

Richard J. Powell, Professor of Art History, Duke University

Clement A. Price, Professor of History, Rutgers University

Bernice Johnson Reagon, Professor Emeritus of History, American University, Curator Emeritus, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Alvia J. Wardlaw, Professor of Art History and Director/Curator of the University Museum at Texas Southern University, Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Deborah Willis, Chair, Photography and Imaging and African Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

http://go.si.edu/site/PageServer?pagename=mm_advisory_committee


...who's other culture's history is to be judged by this vapid, ignorant woman?