In an executive order issued on Thursday night, US President Donald Trump targeted the Smithsonian Institution, vowing to reshape the country’s largest network of museums and cultural sites. The order asserted that federal museums should be “uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing”.
The order, titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History', directs Vice President JD Vance, in his role as a member of the Smithsonian’s board of regents, to oversee the removal of what it terms “divisive, race-centered ideology” from all of the institution’s properties and deny funding to any exhibitions or artworks that “degrade shared American values”. As an example of this “improper ideology”, Trump’s order points to the current exhibition The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture (until 14 September) at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which examines the role of sculpture in “understanding and constructing the concept of race in the United States,” according to the exhibition’s website.
The order also appears to take issue with efforts by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum to honour transgender athletes in its displays, such as in 2022’s We Belong Here, which celebrated the efforts of women in sport, and included a T-shirt worn by transgender, non-binary skateboarder Leo Baker.
Following what has become a familiar playbook, Trump’s order says the Vice President will work with Congress to ensure that the Smithsonian’s future funding is tied to following the administration’s directives. About two thirds of the institution’s annual operating budget of more than $1bn come from funding appropriated by Congress, while the remaining third comes from its endowment, private philanthropy and earned revenue. But as part of a controversial continuing resolution budget passed by the US Senate on 15 March, the president was given direct control of the Smithsonian’s appropriations. The order also seeks to appoint new “citizen members” to the Board of Regents who are “committed to advancing the policy of this order”.
In addition to the Vice President, the Smithsonian’s board currently includes Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, a bipartisan group made up of three senators and three congresspeople, as well as policymakers and leaders such as Michael Govan, CEO and director of Lacma, and John Fahey, the former president of National Geographic.
Another aim of the order is to “restore” Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, a site run by the National Park Service (NPS) that houses the Liberty Bell and the building where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed. Independence Park is among the many NPS sites impacted by the cuts to federal staff over the past month, directed by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. These cuts, to a workforce already short-staffed, resulted in the closure of several historic buildings, according to local news.
In relation to the NPS firings, Trump’s order claims that the administration of former president Joseph Biden “sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling ‘Western foundations’ and ‘interrogating institutional racism’, and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist”. In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Trump is now ordering the Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, to provide Independence Park with funding to improve its infrastructure by 4 July, 2026.
Finally, Trump’s order announces plans to reverse efforts made in recent years to dismantle Confederate monuments across the country and explain the racist history behind their installations. The order directs Burgum to determine if any such memorials or statues “have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology”, and to reinstate them.
The order also prohibits any public monuments from including descriptions that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape”.
The order, which cannot override federal laws and statutes, is the latest move by Trump and his administration to rein in the cultural policy of the United States, following the president’s ousting of the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and his directive to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
During his first term, Trump repeatedly attempted to defund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), although it is not yet clear if he will attempt to do so again, or whether he may try to push the organisation to spend its funding in administration-approved ways. A planned meeting of the National Council on the Arts, the advisory body made up of philanthropists and artists that helps the NEA decide which projects it should award grants to, was meant to take place on 28 March but was postponed to 1 May. According to a spokesperson for the NEA, this was because “the Arts Endowment staff needs additional time to complete the evaluation process related to its grantmaking activities”.
A spokesperson for the Smithsonian declined to comment on the executive order.
In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine published days before Trump’s inauguration, the Smithsonian’s secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, a respected historian, spoke about the institution’s role in presenting the country’s history and culture to the public during such a divisive time.
“It’s really clear that the Smithsonian, by its very nature, is always nonpartisan. It is always driven by the best scholarship. But it’s important to recognize that if you explore art, history, culture, science—by definition, you’re going to deal with controversy. By definition, you’re going to deal with multiple points of view. So to create the notion that the Smithsonian will never be involved in controversy is a wonderful dream, but it’s just a dream,” he said. “The goal here is never, ever to create a sense of self-censorship in the Smithsonian, but to recognise that the Smithsonian has to educate a whole lot of people, some who believe exactly in the interpretations you do, others who are diametrically opposed, and you’ve got to be able to serve both.”
“That’s part of the challenge,” Bunch added, “to make sure that you are grappling with art, history, culture, and science in a way that even if you have debates, that people recognise that you’re cognizant of those debates, but that ultimately you’re making choices, interpretations based on scholarship, based on understanding the tension between scholarship and the public. Understanding that the joy of the Smithsonian is to give the public both what it wants, but also what it needs. That means that the Smithsonian will always be walking a tightrope, but that’s OK, because our job is to educate, to challenge, to make a nation better. And that’s not easy, and we shouldn’t be doing what’s easy.”