White House report brands Smithsonian leadership as radical activists
who can't be trusted
[July 06, 2026]
By STEVE PEOPLES
NEW YORK (AP) — A White House report brands the leadership of the
Smithsonian Institution, especially at the National Museum of American
History, as radical activists who cannot be trusted, indicating that
President Donald Trump may be preparing to install his own team.
The report released late on Independence Day by the White House Domestic
Policy Council comes in the midst of Trump’s aggressive campaign to
overhaul some of Washington's most sacred cultural and historic
institutions. Trump in March revealed his intention to force changes at
the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targeted
funding for programs that advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper
ideology,” as he continued a broadside against culture he deems too
liberal.
"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,” according to the report by the council, which is led by
a former top Trump speechwriter.
The authors added: “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 immediately respond to requests for comment
Sunday.
Historian Lonnie Bunch, the Smithsonian's current secretary, is the
first African American to lead the institution. In an unrelated
interview that aired Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press,” Bunch said “the
notion of being a more perfect union, not the perfect union, is really
what motivates me.”
“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,” Bunch said. “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 is the first woman to serve as director of
National Museum of American History.
Trump's escalating effort to force changes at the Smithsonian marks the
Republican president's latest move to transform cultural pillars of
society, such as universities and art, that he considers out of step
with conservative sensibilities. Trump had himself installed as chairman
of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the aim of
overhauling programming, and his handpicked board voted to add his name
to the building, only to have a federal judge later order the signage to
be removed.
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The Smithsonian Museum of American History is pictured on the
National Mall in Washington, April 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez
Monsivais, File)
The administration also forced Columbia University to make a series
of policy changes by threatening the Ivy League school with the loss
of several hundred million dollars in federal funding.
Trump has also imposed changes on historical sites beyond
Washington, including in Philadelphia, where the administration won
a court ruling last week allowing it to reinstall interpretive
panels that critics say whitewash the history of slavery at the site
of President George Washington’s home. Advocates, academics and
officials have been concerned for months that the version that
complies with Trump’s order could give a history that plays down the
pain in the nation’s past in favor of a more triumphant view.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., accused Trump and his allies of trying to
“rewrite history."
“There’s not one individual narrative that a president gets about
our history,” Shapiro, a potential presidential prospect, 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.”
Shapiro added, “If we understand where we came from, we’re going to
have a better path forward."
Trump's Domestic Policy Council does not necessarily agree.
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
council's report said. “We must be committed to restoring truth and
sanity in how American history is presented and taught.”
In seeking to fulfill Trump's order, which he called “Restoring
Truth and Sanity to American History,” the review concluded by
finding 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.”
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