President Donald Trump has set his sights on the Smithsonian Institution as part of his broader cultural agenda, marking the latest chapter in a decades-long history of political interference with America's premier museum complex. Trump first signaled his intentions in March when he signed an executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," targeting what he described as "improper, divisive or anti-American ideology" within cultural institutions. The White House followed up with an article supporting Trump's position, listing more than 20 examples of how the Smithsonian had allegedly embraced "woke ideology." In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the institution "out of control."
The Smithsonian Institution stands as the world's largest museum, education, and research complex, founded in 1846 as an entity independent from the U.S. government. Today, the institution receives most of its funding through federal appropriations and operates under a governing board that includes the U.S. Vice President and Supreme Court Chief Justice. The vast organization serves as custodian for more than 157 million items across 21 museums, 21 libraries, 14 education and research centers, a zoo, and several historical and architectural landmarks.
While Trump has long been an active participant in America's culture wars, including his denunciation of "cancel culture" at a 2020 Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, his current focus on the Smithsonian carries added significance. The timing coincides with America's upcoming semiquincentennial – the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. This milestone anniversary appears to be driving Trump's heightened interest in controlling how American history is presented to the public.
Trump's administration has explicitly connected its Smithsonian criticism to the upcoming anniversary. In a recent letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, the White House stated: "As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our Nation's founding, it is more important than ever that our national museums reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story." Simultaneously, Trump issued a presidential action establishing Task Force 250, chaired by the president and housed in the Department of Defense. The task force's priorities include developing a "national garden of American heroes" – a project Trump proposed during his first term – and protecting monuments from vandalism.
The Smithsonian has faced political pressure and censorship attempts for decades, with many controversial exhibitions now approaching their own significant anniversaries. In 1972, the Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) hosted "The Right to Vote," an exhibition celebrating the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The exhibition had been scheduled as a venue for President Richard Nixon's inauguration ball, but upon inspection, Nixon's team deemed it too controversial and had it walled off during their events.
Another major controversy erupted in 1991 over the National Museum of American Art's exhibition "The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920." The exhibition encouraged visitors to understand how historical paintings represented a mythical view of the past that justified westward expansion and development. One featured work was John Gast's "American Progress" (1872), which depicted Manifest Destiny – the 19th-century notion that the United States had a providential right to expand its territory.
The 1991 exhibition sparked immediate outrage from former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin, who wrote in the visitor's book that it was "a perverse, historically inaccurate destructive exhibit! No credit to the Smithsonian!" Other politicians rallied behind Boorstin's view that the exhibition was a disrespectful attempt to dismantle and shame the history and legacy of the American frontier. The controversy became the subject of heated debate in Senate Committee on Appropriations hearings from 1990 to 1992, with senators questioning how American nationalism should be represented in museums.
A group of senators led by Ted Stevens threatened to reduce the Smithsonian's funding if it failed to present accountability for its use of federal funds. The Smithsonian's then-Secretary Robert McCormick Adams defended the institution, insisting that precisely because the Smithsonian depended on tax resources, it had a responsibility to exemplify the nation's pluralism. New York Times columnist Michael Kimmelman, reporting on the controversy, used language that resonates today: "The controversy raises questions about government involvement in the arts... Is it now the job of Congress to police its constituents' thinking about the art in those museums?"
Perhaps the most dramatic instance of political interference occurred in the mid-1990s regarding an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of America's atomic bombing of Japan in World War II. The National Air and Space Museum designed a display featuring the restored B-29 bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The exhibition was scheduled to open in 1995, but consultants criticized early plans for presenting what they called a "politically correct and revisionist interpretation" of the events.
Critics claimed the exhibition overplayed the horrors of the bombings and portrayed Japanese victims without sufficient context regarding preceding Japanese aggression. Members of Congress became aware of these concerns and added their own threats of hearings and budget reductions. They called for the curators' resignation and contributed to the exhibition's eventual cancellation. With the original exhibition scrapped, the Enola Gay was displayed in a bare-bones format at the National Air and Space Museum in June 1995.
Trump's current attacks on the Smithsonian follow a long-established political playbook in which cultural institutions face targeting for presenting inclusive views of American history. While the Smithsonian has weathered political attacks on its exhibitions in the past, the institution now faces more attention to its institutional mission than ever before. The recent threats from Trump, combined with lessons from history, highlight the critical importance of protecting the Smithsonian as an independent authority that can withstand political interference at all costs, especially as America prepares for its semiquincentennial celebration.
