The Smithsonian Institution’s leadership is standing firm after the Trump administration ordered a review last month of its exhibits, accusing the museum network of pushing a “race-centered ideology.”
In an internal memo to staff Friday obtained by Courthouse News Service, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III told employees that the institution would continue to operate “free of partisanship” despite White House efforts to reshape its programming. “We remain steadfast in our mission to bring history, science, education, research, and the arts to all Americans,” Bunch wrote.
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The executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directs Vice President JD Vance, who sits on the Smithsonian’s board of regents, to remove “improper ideology” from its more than twenty museums and research centers.
The White House specifically called out exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the American Women’s History Museum, saying they portray Western values as “harmful and oppressive.””
The order also gives Congress the power to cut funding for any Smithsonian program deemed to “divide Americans based on race” and mandates that the women’s history museum exclude transgender representation.
Bunch had pledged to work with the board, which includes Vance and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, but defended the Smithsonian’s mission, calling its scholarship nonpartisan. Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, also a board member, criticized Trump’s directive as a political stunt.
In another recent executive order targeting the Smithsonian, the White House insisted that federal museums should be “solemn and uplifting” tributes to American heritage, not platforms for “ideological indoctrination.”