Because the Trump administration accuses Smithsonian leadership of taking part in “ideological activism,” the Inside Division is now threatening to chop off federal businesses’ cooperation within the curation and funding of displays on the world’s largest museum advanced.
The risk was communicated in a letter that was despatched by the Inside Division to the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents — the governing physique that oversees the establishment.
“As you’re conscious, it’s the government department’s accountability to make sure that taxpayer funds and the help the Smithsonian receives from government departments and businesses are used to protect America’s treasured cultural inheritance, not advance a divisive, ideological agenda,” the division’s letter stated.
It added, “Along with the greater than $1 billion appropriated to the Smithsonian by Congress annually, the Smithsonian enjoys help from government departments and businesses. These government departments and businesses can’t in good conscience proceed to help the Smithsonian underneath present management by, for instance, loaning artifacts for displays, enabling procurement processes and making discretionary grants.”
On this April 20, 2026, file photograph, Inside Secretary Doug Burgum, testifies earlier than the Home Appropriations Committee’s funds listening to on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP, FILE
A spokesperson for the Smithsonian declined to touch upon Thursday when requested concerning the letter by ABC Information.
The letter, which was signed by Inside Secretary Doug Burgum and White Home home coverage assistant Vince Haley, requested board members to satisfy “in individual,” and “at your earliest comfort” with the Inside Division officers “to find out how finest to deal with” the problems outlined within the letter.
In accusing Smithsonian management of “ideological activism,” the letter cited a scathing 162-page July 4 report printed by the White Home Home Coverage Council, which accused the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past (NMAH) and its management of participating in “excessive political activism” and presenting “a radical view of American historical past.”
The report accuses the museum of “anti-White activism,” “unlawful alien activism,” and “transgender activism.” It additionally contains many photographs of supplies the White Home has recognized as problematic.
NMAH Director Anthea Hartig pushed again in opposition to the White Home’s report whereas publicly testifying in a pair of Home congressional hearings in July, the place she asserted that the museum “doesn’t take sides” in political debates.
“Our work is ruled by the Smithsonian requirements of scholarship, accuracy, independence, and nonpartisanship,” Hartig stated in her opening remarks earlier than a Home Subcommittee on Delivering Authorities Effectivity. “The museum doesn’t take sides in America’s political debates. We protect and doc the proof of American life in all of its breadth, in order that the general public can encounter the previous and draw their very own conclusions.”
Hartig, who’s the primary prime Smithsonian official to publicly handle these accusations earlier than Congress, added that whereas the Smithsonian “takes the issues raised” within the White Home report “significantly,” the report “doesn’t pretty or precisely” characterize the museum’s work.
On this July 30, 2026, file photograph, guests arrive on the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of American Historical past in Washington, D.C.
Nathan Howard/Reuters, FILE
The July 4 report didn’t specify motion factors associated to correcting the so-called “activism,” however did reference the truth that the Smithsonian Establishment is basically funded by the federal authorities and U.S. taxpayers.
“Which means the general public has a proper to anticipate that it’ll function as a trustworthy steward of the Nation’s historic and cultural heritage, not as a automobile for ideological campaigns,” the report says.
On this Feb. 20, 2026, file photograph, Secretary of the Smithsonian Establishment Lonnie Bunch speaks at an occasion to current first woman Melania Trump’s 2025 inaugural ball robe to the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of American Historical past, in Washington, D.C.
Allison Robbert/AP, FILE
In line with the Smithsonian Establishment, which oversees 21 museums and galleries and the Nationwide Zoo, it at the moment receives greater than $1 billion in federal funding — about 62% of its funding — and the rest of the funds come from “belief funds or non-federal funds, together with contributions from personal sources” and revenues from Smithsonian enterprises.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch has been main the Smithsonian since 2019, however the establishment is ruled by the 17-member Board of Regents.
Bunch, who met with President Donald Trump on the White Home in August 2025, has repeatedly affirmed the Smithsonian’s “independence” from political affect.
Referencing his conversations with Trump in a September 2025 letter to the establishment’s staff, Bunch underscored the independence of the Smithsonian, saying it was “paramount.” He additionally informed staff that the establishment stays dedicated to telling the “American story” and “will at all times be, a spot that welcomes all People and the world.”
