Since the start of President Trump’s second term, the Smithsonian Institution has been in his sights. In March 2025, he issued an executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” that accused the Smithsonian of embracing a “divisive, race-centered ideology” that portrays American and Western values as “inherently harmful and oppressive.”
Pursuant to this order, the White House Domestic Policy Council this July 4 issued a 162-page report accusing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and its director, Anthea Hartig, of adopting an ideological framework that treats the American story as a “political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”
…A lesson from the administration’s assault on higher education is that while it was misguided in many ways, it exposed the weakness of many elite universities when confronted with antisemitism and disruptive protests and prompted some of them to change their policies. Similarly, the report on the Smithsonian exposed troubling facts that the museum should take seriously.
Ms. Hartig, who became director in 2019, has infused the National Museum of American History with a new sense of mission. … “history as a practice . . . is for me a prime tool of social justice.” … the museum rewrote its mission as “empowering people to create a just and compassionate future” by exploring the past.
…The museum in 2021 adopted an “Interpretive Plan” to guide its work. “Whatever the topic,” … “we ask questions that speak to the core issues of our time.” … “race and identity,” “gender and sexuality,” “environmental change,” “immigration and migrations” and “economic inequality.”