The Trump administration threatened to cut federal support to the Smithsonian Institution, as debate continues over whether the country’s leading cultural center is guilty of political activism in how it portrays the U.S. and its history.
Executive departments and agencies could cut off relations with the cultural center if Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House domestic policy assistant Vince Haley follow through on the option outlined in their letter to Smithsonian board members. The letter alleged the Smithsonian may have violated anti-discrimination laws. It comes after the White House had previously suggested it could pull $1 billion in federal funding from the Smithsonian, or around 62% of the institution’s funding.
“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 read.
“As you are aware, it is the executive branch’s responsibility to ensure that taxpayer funds and the support the Smithsonian receives from executive departments and agencies are used to preserve America’s precious cultural inheritance, not advance a divisive, ideological agenda,” the letter continued.
The two administration officials asked to meet with the board “in person” at their earliest convenience, “to determine how best to address” the issues outlined in the letter, which cited a 162-page July 4 report published by the White House Domestic Policy Council.
That report indicated damning findings about how the Smithsonian portrays the U.S. and its history, according to the Trump administration. For example, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History was accused of “anti-White activism,” “transgender activism,” “extreme political activism,” and presenting “a radical view of American history.” In July, Trump ordered the museum to put up warning signs highlighting the White House report after it concluded the Smithsonian put ideological bias over historical facts.
The institution has sought to push back on concerns that it is pushing a progressive narrative in exhibits and displays.
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“The museum does not take sides in America’s political debates,” Anthea Hartig, the NMAH’s director, said during testimony before a congressional panel in July.
“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,” she said.