Douglas Remley (Smithsonian)(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to visit the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in observance of Martin Luther King Day, senior level transition sources tell ABC News.
The visit comes as Trump continues to draw ire from critics over a Twitter attack against congressman and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Trump hit back Saturday over comments by Lewis in an interview with NBC, after the lawmaker said he doesn’t find Trump to be a “legitimate president” following Russian interference in the U.S. election.
Trump in back-to-back tweets said Lewis was “falsely complaining about the election,” and called him “all talk, talk, talk — no action or results!”
Lewis is one of the last surviving central organizing figures of the U.S. civil rights movement and was beaten by police in a march for voting rights on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Lewis introduced the original legislation to found the Smithsonian museum in 1988, and then fought for 15 years until it was signed into law by President George W. Bush. He is also featured prominently in the museum’s exhibits, including in photos of him speaking at the March on Washington along with his mug shot from his arrest during the Freedom Rides in 1961.
ABC has reached out to the Smithsonian and the Trump transition team for comment.
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