Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch is stepping down from his place, the establishment mentioned Tuesday, after seven years of main the world’s largest museum, training and analysis advanced.
“I’ve fought for so long as I can. I really like this nation and I really like the Smithsonian and I’ll all the time work to defend our extra good Union,” Bunch advised ABC Information in an announcement, confirming his resignation on Tuesday.
Bunch’s resignation comes amid mounting attacks against the Smithsonian from the Trump administration, which has accused Smithsonian management of presenting a “radical view” of American history and threatening to withhold federal funds and support.
“It’s with very combined feelings and heartfelt gratitude that I announce my retirement from the Smithsonian,” Bunch mentioned in an announcement. “I’ve spent almost half of my life working at and being a part of the Smithsonian household, and what a privilege it has been. There isn’t a place just like the Smithsonian—it has been one of many nice loves of my life, and I’m terribly pleased with what we have now achieved collectively. I go away with pleasure and disappointment, gratitude and pleasure, and with monumental confidence within the individuals who will carry this exceptional establishment ahead.”
Bunch, who has been part of the Smithsonian Establishment for the previous 38 years, was named secretary in June 2019, making him the primary African American and first historian to serve within the position. Bunch didn’t reference the continued assaults from the White Home in his parting assertion.
“It’s time for my subsequent chapter, a chapter that may permit me to proceed to guard the integrity of the Smithsonian and to champion the significance of a historical past that illuminates and celebrates the advanced story of our nation,” Bunch mentioned. “The Smithsonian has been a reservoir of science, historical past, artwork and tradition that freely permits the general public to seek out data, understanding, readability, training, hope and a little bit of pleasure. I’ll all the time carry the Smithsonian inside me.”
Bunch mirrored on his legacy in a July interview with ABC Information to mark America’s 250th birthday.
Requested in regards to the White Home’s criticism of the Smithsonian, Bunch mentioned, “I feel that for me it’s — I am all the time open to any criticism, any feedback. We wish to be in the most effective establishments we may be.”
He added, “However I really feel very strongly {that a} nation has to grasp the totality of its previous, the complexity of its previous, so as to perceive greatness of a nation.”
In July, the White Home launched a scathing 162-page report accusing the Smithsonian Establishment of participating in “excessive political activism” and presenting “a radical view of American historical past.”
The report, which was revealed by the White Home Home Coverage Council, took intention on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past (NMAH), accusing its management of adopting “an ideological framework that not treats the American story as a shared nationwide inheritance to be taught or celebrated, however as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our residents.”
The report got here amid a assessment of the Smithsonian that was launched in response to President Donald Trump’s March 27, 2025, govt order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
The chief order directed Vice President J.D. Vance, in session with the president’s advisers on home coverage, “to take away improper ideology” from Smithsonian establishments, arguing that supplies that solid America in a “unfavorable mild” don’t have any place in federal cultural establishments.
Amid escalating assaults from the White Home, NMAH Director Anthea Hartig turned the primary Smithsonian official in July to testify on the difficulty earlier than Congress.
In her testimony, Hartig pushed again in opposition to the White Home July 4 report, asserting 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 mentioned 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.”
Bunch, who met with Trump on the White Home final August, has repeatedly affirmed the Smithsonian’s “independence” from political affect.
Referencing his conversations with Trump in a September 2025 letter to the establishment’s workers, Bunch underscored the independence of the Smithsonian, saying it was “paramount.” He additionally advised workers that the establishment stays dedicated to telling the “American story” and “will all the time be, a spot that welcomes all People and the world.”
The Smithsonian is overseen by a 17-member governing physique, often known as the Board of Regents.
Franklin D. Raines, chair of the Board of Regents, mentioned board members will announce an performing secretary as they start a nationwide seek for Bunch’s successor.
“I’ve had the glory of working with Lonnie Bunch for greater than twenty years, first when he was the founding director of the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition and in the end when he turned the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian,” Raines mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday. “I’ve seen firsthand how Secretary Bunch’s management of our 21 museums and the Nationwide Zoo has illuminated the nation’s previous, opened pathways to new data and powered creativity and innovation.”
ABC Information’ Kyra Phillips and John Santucci contributed to this report.
