The Trump administration sent a letter to the Smithsonian Board of Regents, urging them to abandon its “radical political agenda” and pivot to a faithful “American story.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Vince Haley, assistant to the president for domestic policy, wrote in the letter, “As an entity created to be the Nation’s foremost steward of American history and culture, the Smithsonian bears a responsibility to preserve and present the American story faithfully, accurately, coherently and in a manner worthy of the public trust.”
Detailing how the Smithsonian has been radicalized, the letter asserts that the “ultimate effort” of such derailing is to “weaken our shared American identity, erase our heritage and condition the public to accept these attempts to weaponize our national institutions and traditions in support of a radical political agenda.”
Because the Smithsonian receives support from executive departments and agencies, these 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.”
A recent report highlighted the Smithsonian’s “political activism.” According to the report, an “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.”
President Trump also issued an executive order on American history, which stated that the “Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” a shift that Trump said has “promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
