The Trump administration’s sustained campaign against what it called “radical, activist ideology” at America’s national museums has claimed its biggest scalp yet: Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III announced he’s stepping down by the end of the year.
The departure comes just weeks after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley sent a blistering letter declaring that federal agencies could not “continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership.”
Bunch told The New York Times that pressure from Washington didn’t drive his decision to leave. “I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” Bunch said. “And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”
The writing was on the wall since July, when a White House report took direct aim at the National Museum of American History. The report charged that the museum had 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.”
Bunch pushed back at the time, calling the report “not a fair characterization of the work” in a memo to Smithsonian staff.
But the administration wasn’t backing down. The August letter from Burgum and Haley escalated the conflict dramatically, threatening to cut off the flow of support that keeps the Smithsonian running beyond its more than $1 billion annual congressional appropriation.
“Those executive departments and agencies cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership by, for example, loaning artifacts for exhibits, enabling procurement processes and making discretionary grants,” the two officials wrote.
The letter went further, suggesting the institution may have committed “significant violations of federal antidiscrimination law.” Administration officials claimed to have “uncovered evidence that the Smithsonian leadership’s institutional culture may have resulted in significant violations of Federal antidiscrimination law, including creating a hostile work environment and engaging in practices that classify individuals and allocate opportunities, funding and other benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity and other protected characteristics.”
In his departure statement, Bunch struck a reflective tone. “There is no place like the Smithsonian. It has been one of the great loves of my life, and I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together,” he said. “I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.”
The Board of Regents, led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Vice President JD Vance, will appoint Bunch’s successor. Roberts offered praise for the outgoing secretary’s seven years of service.
“Secretary Bunch has pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story,” Roberts said. “The Regents, and the Smithsonian, have benefited greatly from his wisdom, vision and leadership.”
The search for new leadership at America’s museum complex begins now.
