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\n\tWhile most of the country was celebrating United States\u2019s 250th birthday, the Trump White House launched its latest broadside against the Smithsonian Institution: a 162-page report from the Domestic Policy Council detailing supposed \u201cideological capture\u201d at the National Museum of American History.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe report, released on July 4, alleges the museum \u201cpurposely presents America as a problematic country irredeemably conceived, founded by deeply flawed men, and still operating today as an instrument of systemic racism and oppression. In the Museum\u2019s current telling, the country is, above all, defined by white supremacy, slavery, conquest, exclusion, hierarchy, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and systemic injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs evidence of NMAH\u2019s \u201cinstitutional capture by a radical, activist ideology,\u201d the report cites numerous exhibitions, including the 2022 show \u201cUpending 1620,\u201d which analyzed early relationships between Wampanoag peoples and the English to reframe \u201cpilgrims\u201d as \u201ccolonists.\u201d It also targeted NMAH\u2019s 2021 Interpretive Plan, which called for ensuring materials and exhibitions \u201cresonate with the present\u201d by \u201cask[ing] questions that speak to the core issues of our time, including: race and identity; gender and sexuality; environmental change; immigration and migrations; economic inequality; technological change; nationalism and globalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPredictably, a major point of contention is exhibits and education materials\u2014particularly those targeted at children and young people\u2014that discuss gender fluidity, gender normativity, gender identity, and gender roles. The report also takes issue with the museum\u2019s \u201cBecoming US\u201d educational curriculum, its \u201cUndocumented Organizing Collective Initiative,\u201d and \u201cTell Me What Democracy Looks Like,\u201d a \u201cdigital space\u201d that connects students with undocumented immigrant organizers\u2014all of which it claims \u201cextensively advocated for millions of illegal aliens to be granted US citizenship and voting rights \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe report also takes issue with presentations of LGBTQIA+ Americans, abortion rights, Indigenous rights, and discussions of white privilege. Ultimately, the report concludes the Smithsonian and the museum \u201cengage in discriminatory and likely illegal behaviors and practices.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a statement, a spokesperson for NMAH said, \u201cFor more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe report, titled \u201cSaving America\u2019s Story,\u201d was initiated by President Trump\u2019s March 2025 executive order, titled \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History,\u201d which accused the Smithsonian of propagating a version of history that \u201cdeepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.\u201d Throughout 2025, Trump put pressure on the Institution, and Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, targeting certain artworks and exhibitions and even claiming to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian-run museum, before she\u00a0resigned soon after.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe campaign culminated in a threat by the White House to withhold federal funding unless the Smithsonian agreed to turn over all documents for a content review. Bunch agreed to that review, while steadfastly maintaining the museum network\u2019s independence. However, in December, Russell Vought and Vince Haley, the budget director for the White House and the director of the Domestic Policy Council, respectively, accused the Smithsonian in a leaked email of falling \u201cfar short of what was requested\u201d and demanded that it submit all documentation for its exhibitions by January 13. In light of the US\u2019s 250th anniversary, Vought and Haley added that the public would have \u201cno patience\u201d for exhibitions that don\u2019t present \u201ca positive view of American history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Smithsonian\u2019s total budget for fiscal year 2026 is $1.86 billion, about $959.3 million of which is appropriated by the federal government. (Some $839.2 million comes from the Smithsonian Trust, and $66 million from non-appropriated federal funds.)<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile the report stops short of calling for specific actions, it says that the president has \u201ca duty and obligation to seek reforms of the Smithsonian, and to urge the Chief Justice of the United States, as the Chancellor of the Smithsonian, as well as the Vice President, as a Regent of the Smithsonian and as President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, to take appropriate action to restore the integrity of the National Museum of American History.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2232706818-e1783348220166.jpg?w=1024″] While most of the country was celebrating United States\u2019s 250th birthday, the Trump White House launched its latest broadside against the Smithsonian Institution: a 162-page report from the Domestic Policy Council detailing supposed \u201cideological capture\u201d at the National Museum of American History. The report, released on July 4, alleges the museum \u201cpurposely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2030393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2030393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2030393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2030393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2030393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}