A scathing report from the White House Domestic Policy Council, released on the Fourth of July, declares that the leadership of the Smithsonian Institution — and the National Museum of American History in particular — cannot be trusted to present American history in an honest or uplifting way. The report suggests that President Donald Trump may be laying the groundwork to install his own leadership team at the institution.
The release comes as Trump continues an aggressive push to reshape some of Washington’s most prominent cultural and historical institutions. Back in March, Trump signed an executive order targeting Smithsonian programs that he said promoted “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” part of his wider effort to push back against what he views as overly liberal cultural influence.
The council’s report — led by a former top Trump speechwriter — states: “The Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of American History in particular, under its current leadership and current interpretive ideology, cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”
The report goes further, claiming: “As this report shows, confirmed in the words of Museum leadership, this ideological capture has moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.”
The Smithsonian did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
Historian Lonnie Bunch, who currently serves as the Smithsonian’s secretary, is the first African American to hold that position. In a separate interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bunch spoke about his guiding philosophy. “The notion of being a more perfect union, not the perfect union, is really what motivates me,” he said.
Bunch continued: “I think what I want people to understand is that there is a responsibility to continue to make those aspirations available, accessible, meaningful to a whole range of people. And that, in essence, America’s greatest strength, it’s not running away from its history, but it’s understanding how that history shaped us and continues to shape us.”
Historian Anthea M. Hartig holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve as director of the National Museum of American History.
Trump’s push to overhaul the Smithsonian is the latest chapter in his broader effort to bring cultural institutions — including universities and the arts — in line with conservative values. He had himself named chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and worked to overhaul its programming. His hand-selected board voted to add his name to the building, though a federal judge later ordered that signage to be taken down.
The administration also pressured Columbia University into making a series of policy changes by threatening to pull several hundred million dollars in federal funding from the Ivy League school.
Beyond Washington, the Trump administration has also moved to alter how history is presented at sites around the country. In Philadelphia, the administration won a court ruling last week allowing it to reinstall interpretive panels at the site of President George Washington’s home — panels that critics say downplay the history of slavery at that location. Scholars, advocates, and officials have expressed concern that the administration’s version of the exhibit softens the painful parts of history in favor of a more celebratory narrative.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and potential presidential contender, pushed back sharply on the effort, accusing Trump and his allies of attempting to “rewrite history.”
“There’s not one individual narrative that a president gets about our history,” Shapiro said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And any president should want to make sure that that full history is shared, that the American people are able to draw their own conclusions.”
He added: “If we understand where we came from, we’re going to have a better path forward.”
The White House Domestic Policy Council’s report took a different view, saying the National Museum of American History “confronts visitors with materials intended to undermine faith in American institutions and the longstanding shared ideals of the American people.” The report declared: “We must be committed to restoring truth and sanity in how American history is presented and taught.”
The review, carried out in connection with Trump’s executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” concluded that the museum “by the intention and at the direction of current Museum and Smithsonian leadership, has become subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology that is fundamentally opposed to telling the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love.”
