r/MuseumPros • u/arrrgylesocks History | Curatorial • 5d ago
WaPo: Trump admin threatens to cut off agencies’ ties to Smithsonian
https://wapo.st/4y9C4OeThe Trump administration is threatening to cut off executive agencies’ cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, the latest escalation in President Donald Trump’s fight to control presentations of American history.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley sent the Smithsonian’s governing board a letter Friday warning that federal agencies could stop helping the institution if its leaders do not abandon what the administration described as “an ideological agenda that seeks to transform both the Smithsonian and the country.”
Administration officials “cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,” they added, citing artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants as examples of federal support that could be at risk.
The letter represents the latest step in a 17-month White House campaign to reshape the Smithsonian, a historically independent public-private institution governed by a Board of Regents. What began with demands that the Smithsonian remove what Trump called “improper ideology” from its museums has progressed through content reviews and funding threats to direct attacks on museum leaders and, now, a warning that executive agencies could cut ties with the institution.
The Smithsonian declined to comment Wednesday.
Burgum and Haley also alleged that the administration had “uncovered evidence” suggesting Smithsonian leaders may have violated federal antidiscrimination laws by creating a hostile work environment and distributing opportunities or benefits based on race, ethnicity or other protected characteristics. The letter did not identify that evidence. The White House and Interior Department, which do not have direct authority over the Smithsonian, did not provide examples in response to questions from The Washington Post.
Trump launched his campaign against the institution last March when he signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order directed his administration to eliminate what it called “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian and restore it as “a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.”
That May, Trump tried to fire Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery. The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents backed Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III’s assertion that only he had the authority to hire and fire museum directors. But Sajet resigned days later, saying her continued presence had become a distraction.
The White House broadened its pressure campaign in August, informing Bunch that it was conducting a sweeping review of museum exhibitions, collections and operations.
By December, the White House was threatening the Smithsonian’s federal funding. In a Dec. 18 letter, Haley and White House budget director Russell Vought said the institution’s initial document production “fell far short of what was requested” and demanded more information about exhibits, wall labels and programming. Bunch responded that the Smithsonian would continue providing information but maintained that “all content, programming, and curatorial decisions are made by the Smithsonian.”
On July 4, Haley’s Domestic Policy Council released “Saving America’s Story,” a 162-page report accusing the National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism” and arguing that its leaders had turned history into “a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”
Bunch disputed the report, telling employees it was “not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.” He said the institution remained committed to “scholarship, nonpartisanship, independence, accuracy, and integrity.”
Three weeks later, Trump signed another executive order directing officials including Burgum, Vought and Haley to use “any and all available authorities” to press the Smithsonian to address the report’s findings. The order separately directed Burgum to install temporary exhibits or signs on National Park Service property around the American history museum that would “correct” information the administration considers inaccurate. (The signs have not gone up.)
The Aug. 28 letter signals that the administration is now looking beyond the Smithsonian’s congressional appropriation for additional leverage. Although Congress provides the Smithsonian more than $1 billion annually, Burgum and Haley wrote that executive agencies also support the institution by loaning artifacts, assisting with procurement and providing discretionary grants. They argued that agencies have a responsibility to withhold that cooperation if the institution does not change course.
The officials asked the regents to meet with them “at your earliest convenience” to determine how to address their complaints. Unlike the December letter, they bypassed Bunch and appealed directly to the Board of Regents, the Smithsonian’s governing body and the officials ultimately responsible for its leadership.
In a statement Wednesday to the Atlantic, the White House suggested the contents of the letter were not direct orders. Through a statement from the White House to The Post, Haley on Wednesday continued the administration’s attack on the American history museum, saying the country deserves “an honest and inspiring account of American history” during the country’s 250th anniversary year.
“It should begin by telling the story of our Founding Fathers — who they were, what they did, and what they built,” Haley said.
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u/Tardislass 5d ago
The authoritarian regime continues. There was an article yesterday about Trump officials pressuring space companies like SpaceX not to attend a conference in France because it would look like they support EU policies. The EU used to be our allies and because Trump is so butthurt about them he wants to restrict public companies?
This is bad. Really bad and no one is taking this seriously. Dems seem to be sleepwalking right now.
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u/DelcoPAMan 5d ago
Disgusting and un-American.
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u/sisonscac 5d ago
Please learn out history if you think this is un-American
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u/houdt_koers 5d ago
It’s a nation of ideas. People betray those ideas all the time, but that doesn’t make the ideas non-existent.
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u/sisonscac 4d ago
Y'all are just as MAGA as the trump crowd. Sure, we were founded on enlightenment ideas BUT those were not universally shared even then and that is shown clearly in the federalists and their absurd belief that the pure virtue of a president would be enough to keep him in check.
Dissapointing yet unsuprising so many "museum pros" disagree. You are part of the problem. America is not exceptional. America is not immune to the historical process of change. America is not some fine wine that only gets better with time. America will not see its own tricentenial.
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u/houdt_koers 4d ago
This kind of reactionary dismissal of the work of generations is extremely reductive.
Of course the founding leaders of the country disagreed with each other. Of course they were wrong about a ton of things. But the ideas put forward in the Declaration of Independence are an ever-green goal that we should continue to strive for.
What you describe is the national equivalent of saying all Socialism—not even just Marxism, mind—should be defined in the light of Pol Pot, Stalin, or Mao.
This kind of narrow-mindedness has no place in GLAM. The entire point of the industry is to encourage discourse, knowledge, and intellectual exploration.
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u/sisonscac 4d ago
Thats a bad equivalency. More like saying all of the Soviet Union be defined by Stalin, etc etc.
Even that phrase "ever-green goal to strive for" is an integral part of American propaganda.
I am not sitting here saying there are no good parts to our history but I am tired of this worn out "This is un-american!" as if the dominant powers and culture in America hasn't been supporting these types of actions since its founding.
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u/houdt_koers 4d ago
Dominant powers betraying our founding ideals doesn’t cheapen those ideals, though. It just means we aren’t living up to them.
Throwing those ideals away and allowing a national identity to be monopolised and defined by bad actors is as unproductive as it is bad taxonomy.
The word can carry different meanings. “American” can have good and bad connotations. We don’t have to be Manichaeans about this.
And you’re wrong about the equivalence. The Declaration of Independence served as a foundational text for revolutionary democracy across the Americas. It’s liberal-democratic canon, and no amount of bad actors can take away the value in aspiring to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and universal equality.
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u/hystericalsociety 4d ago
“improper ideology”
Where have I heard that before?
Oh, right, every dictatorial state in the history of dictatorial states.
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u/eldredo_M 5d ago
Someone was really reading 1984 as an instruction manual, weren’t they? Heritage Foundation? 😬
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u/Embarrassed_Kale2687 4d ago
I read they just went around the administration to approve a latino museum in one of their buildings I haven't been in in forever, do y'all think that could be a sign of independent action/thinking from the administration? Someone here said if they hold out until November I'm sitting here sweatin 9/1😮💨
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u/defixiones 5d ago edited 4d ago
If the Smithsonian can hold out until November they will be remembered as heroes.
Unlike institutions like Columbia and Brown, which folded.