[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2287542996.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tIn its latest attempt to bring the Smithsonian Institution to heel, the Trump administration is threatening to cut off discretionary grants and is accusing the organization of violating federal antidiscrimination law. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Vince Haley, assistant to the president for domestic policy, wrote a letter to the Smithsonian\u2019s board of regents on August 28, warning that the Smithsonian may lose support from executive agencies. Congress provides the majority of the Smithsonian\u2019s funding, more than $1 billion a year.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe letter was earlier reported on by the Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tNeither the Smithsonian Institution nor the museum immediately responded to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAs Burgum and Haley outline, the White House Domestic Policy Council recently issued a report, \u201cSaving America\u2019s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage,\u201d after which Trump issued an executive order, \u201cRestoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution,\u201d asserting that \u201ccurrent leadership of both the Smithsonian Institution and the [National Museum of American History] cannot be trusted to tell America\u2019s story with honesty and gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe National Museum of American History, the letter says, has adopted a new \u201cInterpretive Plan\u201d that instructs staff to tie all topics to the \u201ccore issues of our time,\u201d including race and identity, gender and sexuality, climate change, immigration, economic inequality, technological change, and nationalism and globalism. \u201cTo do anything less is to shirk our commitment to relevance,\u201d it quotes the plan as saying.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe report also accused the museum of seeking to \u201clegitimize illegal immigration and open borders\u201d and \u201cpresent the view that biological men can be women and should be permitted to compete in women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Smithsonian \u201cenjoys support from executive departments and agencies,\u201d the letter continues, adding that \u201cThose 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe letter also claims that the \u201cinstitutional culture may have resulted in significant violations of Federal antidiscrimination law, including creating a hostile work environment\u201d by allocating opportunities and funding based on race, ethnicity, and other protected characteristics.<\/p>\n \n\tBurgum and Haley also assert, without giving examples, that the Smithsonian\u2019s culture has \u201ccorrupted\u201d the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). The AAM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBurgum\u2019s office did not immediately respond to ARTnews<\/em>\u2019s request for comment on which executive agencies specifically would cut off the Smithsonian, or elaborate on how the Smithsonian has corrupted AAM. The White House, in response to a request for comment on the same issues, sent a statement by Haley that reiterated his position on the museum but did not address those questions.<\/p>\n \n\tIn March 2025, two months after taking office in his second term, Trump issued the executive order titled \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History\u201d that addresses what he describes as \u201canti-American ideology\u201d at the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian Institution, while heavily publicly funded, is not controlled by the government, as Congress outlined when it was established in 1846.<\/p>\n \n\tThe administration\u2019s interventions at the Smithsonian have continued. Most recently, the administration ordered signage outside the NMAH in July to flag what it called \u201cinaccurate information\u201d presented in its exhibits. The museum\u2019s director, Anthea Hartig, was grilled in two congressional hearings, also in July, with questions like, \u201cAre you America first? Do you love America?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNotably, the AAM released a statement in July condemning the administration\u2019s attacks on the Smithsonian. Another leading industry group, the International Council of Museums (ICOM), likewise released a statement last month pledging its \u201cunwavering support\u201d for the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/trump-accuses-smithsonian-discrimination-threatens-grants-1234796921\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2287542996.jpg?w=1024″] In its latest attempt to bring the Smithsonian Institution to heel, the Trump administration is threatening to cut off discretionary grants and is accusing the organization of violating federal antidiscrimination law. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Vince Haley, assistant to the president for domestic policy, wrote a letter to the Smithsonian\u2019s board […]<\/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-2126466","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\/2126466","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=2126466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2126466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2126466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2126466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}