President Donald Trump’s more than 130 executive orders and other decisions aim to subvert everything from long-term immigration policies to controlling the center of the performing arts.

But zoos are not many issues that the Trump administration is concerned about so far.

This is no longer the case.

Trump issued an executive order on March 27, 2025 to restore the "truth and sanity" of federal historic sites.

"Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a consistent and broad effort to rewrite the history of our nation. As a corrective measure, he directed Vice President JD Vance to recruit “unreasonable ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution, a museum and research center created and funded by the federal government.

The executive order also applied for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., which has been part of the Smithsonian since 1890.

For Trump critics, the advice that the zoo may be instilling tourists is ridiculous.

NBC "Late Night" host Seth Meyers joked during the April 2 show that it was evidence of authoritarian character.

"Seriously, in the zoo, what exactly is the 'improper' ideology? Trump is starting to fall into weird dictators," Meyers said.

Meyers' surprise is not surprising. The zoo goes out to portray itself as scientific objective and political neutral.

However, as a scholar of the cultural and social impact of war on American culture and society, I know that zoos have always been ideological, conveying a subtle and subtle message of topics that are not related to animals.

Historically, zoos have been used to justify colonial exploitation. They have a great idea of ​​eugenicists of racial hierarchy. They were the background of various political theaters.

For example, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Italian strongman Benito Mussolini loved to climb in lion cages in the Roman zoo to show his courage and vitality associated with fascist politics.

As I said in my 2025 book World War Zoo: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of Modern Times, the connection between zoos and national politics is particularly evident during wartime.

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World War Zoo

Zoo ownership and funding models depend on individual zoos, but many zoos have at least some government funding to operate.

At the beginning of World War II, most governments asked the zoos to embrace the ideology of sacrifice - willing to set the needs of the nation.

For zoos in North America and the British Empire, this means cutting workers’ salaries, rationing food supplies, and providing special zoo facilities for uniform soldiers.

This also means destroying animals considered threats to public safety, especially in cases where they may be released in the event of an explosion or attack. In 1939, the London Zoo killed more than 200 animals from the Black Widow Spider and the Venomous Snake. Other zoos have done the same, slaughtering animal collections to prevent possible escapes.

The authoritarian government during World War II almost completely controlled its country's zoos.

Under Adolf Hitler, Derman Zoo implemented the “Aryans Only” visit policy, used the Swastikas venue to host a party for Nazi VIPs, and displayed animals robbed from the zoo in the occupying state.

In Japan, the governor of Tokyo ordered a series of "propaganda killings" at the Ueno Zoo to strengthen public commitments to wartime struggles. Starting in August 1943, zoo staff were shot, stabbed and strangled over 20 animals, including a polar bear, an American bison, a python and a leopard.

Three elephants, Jon, Tangi and Hannaco, also starved to death at the Tokyo Zoo. A few weeks after the zoo held an official funeral for animals, two of the three elephants who were actually not dead continued to suffer, their cages covered with colorful flags, so the public would not see horrible evidence.

Even as the battle rages, the Soviet government directed its zoos to develop practical measures to aid the war. At the Moscow Zoo, staff teach people how to cultivate mice and rabbits for medical applications, such as vaccine testing.

All along, Soviet zoos employees had to show ideological vigilance in the workplace. Any slip could mean official sanctions, loss of status or worse.

Cold War Zoo

During the Cold War, governments around the world continued to watch zoos through ideological lenses.

This is especially true in Berlin, where the city's two zoos - one in the capitalist west and the other in the communist east - became symbols of the competitive ideological worldview.

During the Cold War, no zoo animals were more ideological than giant pandas, which was unique to the forested mountains in central China.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. government rejected the import of giant pandas from China by American zoos. The State Council considers them to be "enemy commodities."

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In 1972, when the Cold War thawed, President Richard Nixon famously returned with Ling-Ling and Hsing-hsing, the first giant panda to be dedicated and exhibited in the United States for decades.

The National Zoo launched China's latest "Soft Electrical Ambassador" in January 2025. Three-year-old Pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao will remain in DC for 10 years, enough to win the hearts of millions of zoo visitors.