Smithsonian showdown intensifies as Trump administration issues a stark new warning

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History was called out for being “ideologically captured” and presenting woke revisionist history.(Kevin Carter)

“Those 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,” the letter reads.

While the letter does not provide specific changes that the administration would like to see from the Smithsonian, it does note that an “appropriate response” from the organization “must likewise address executive leadership and institutional ideology.”

Read More → Raiders’Fernando Mendoza once again goes viral during an interview for hilarious Joe Buck greeting

That wording could be significant as the institution operates independently but is overseen by board members appointed by congressional resolutions that the president must sign into law.By October, there will be four openings on the institution’s board of regents, a fact the administration may leverage to increase its influence over the Smithsonian.

“Very few Americans want the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to be used, in the words of its director, as a ‘prime tool of social justice’ and as an instrument of ideological activism and advocacy,”  Vince Haley, the director of the White House�“Unfortunately, the Saving America’s Story report demonstrates, using the statements of Museum leadership and the interpretive guidelines adopted by the Museum, that this is exactly what the Smithsonian’s flagship museum has become.”

Read More → Morning coffee could interfere with popular weight-loss pill, doctors warn

“During this 250th anniversary year of our heroic founding, the least our citizens are owed is an honest and inspiring account of American history.It should begin by telling the story of our Founding Fathers — who they were, what they did, and what they built.It is our hope and expectation that the Smithsonian will eventually rise once again to that noble obligation — to tell America’s story for our children, the world and future generations of Americans,” he added.

WATCH: SMITHSONIAN HISTORY MUSEUM DIRECTOR STUMBLES OVER BASIC QUESTIONS ON SEX: ‘I’M NOT SURE’

Read More → JONATHAN TURLEY: Piker’s Charlie Kirk attack shows he is hateful Left’s Pied Piper

Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History, testifies during a House subcommittee hearing titled “Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian’s Efforts to Reshape the Past,” on July 21, 2026.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

DOI requests that representatives from the Smithsonian meet with administration officials “at [their] earliest convenience” to discuss the alleged bias andcivil rights violationspresent at the institution.

“The museum does not take sides in America’s political debates.We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions,”National Museum of American History’s director Anthea Hartig said at a July congressional hearing.

onelink.me/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.

Recent reporting has found that the museum’s leadership and many of its curators have backgrounds in liberal advocacy or Democratic politics.In addition to exhibits at the National Museum of American History, which the Trump administration characterized as demonizing America, even the Smithsonian-runNational Zoois inundated with information about DEI and gender equity.