White House to conduct 'comprehensive review' at eight Smithsonian museums
The process will include a comprehensive analysis, covering everything from exhibit texts and social media content to curatorial practices, collection usage, and narrative standards.
Children in Washington at the National Museum of American History (Archive).
This week, the White House sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting a "comprehensive internal review" of eight of its museums. According to the letter, the goal is to align the organization with President Donald Trump’s cultural directives ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations.
"This initiative seeks to ensure alignment with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, eliminate divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions," reads the document, addressed to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch.
The administration says it plans to carry out the process in stages. The eight museums included in the first phase are the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
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The process will include a broad analysis, covering everything from exhibition texts and social media content to curatorial practices, collection usage and narrative standards.
The letter outlines the documentation museums must submit to the White House for evaluation. Among the requests are copies of grant applications and funding agreements, inventories of permanent holdings, visitor surveys and the complete schedule of traveling exhibitions through 2029.
The Trump administration will complete parts of the review process within specific time frames of 30, 75 and 120 days, the document states, allowing the institution to address and implement the recommendations.
"Within 120 days, museums should begin implementing content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideological language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive depictions on posters, mural didactic materials, digital exhibits, and other public-facing materials," the letter states.
Political lawsuits against Trump removed from a Smithsonian exhibit.
The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., removed references to President Trump's two first-term impeachments from an exhibit following a review.
The exhibit, titled The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, includes mentions of the impeachments of Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, as well as the Watergate scandal involving President Richard Nixon, who resigned before facing certain impeachment.
A temporary tag was added in 2021 to include the impeachments of President Trump in 2019 and again in 2021, just days before the end of his first term. However, the references to Trump's impeachments were removed last month.
In a later statement, the Smithsonian said it received no pressure from any member of the Trump administration to make the change, noting that it was part of a broader reform.
After strong media scrutiny, the museum announced it would reinstate all information related to the Republican president's trials with some modifications.
The letter sent to the Smithsonian Foundation is signed by officials Lindsey Halligan (Special Assistant to the President), Vince Haley (Director of the Domestic Policy Council) and Russell Vought (Director of the Office of Management and Budget) and is reproduced on the White House website.
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