USA16 September, 20262 min read
Doug Burgum Plans About a Dozen Signs Outside Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
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Approximately twelve signs to be installed outside Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Each sign costs about $7,000; contents pending finalization per Burgum's letter.
6 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on White House Officials Question How Long Katie Zacharia Will Stay Press Secretary After First Briefing →
Signs Outside Smithsonian
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Interior Department is planning to install roughly a dozen signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to denounce certain exhibits, with each sign costing about $7,000.
Burgum’s letter to Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the correspondence came in response to an Aug. 6 inquiry about implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the Cabinet official to install temporary displays outside the building.
The Atlantic reported the previously undisclosed letter, and Burgum said, "The purpose of these signs is straightforward: Americans should enter the NMAH with relevant information about the curators’ interpretation of history."
Burgum also wrote that the signs would be part of Trump’s efforts to reshape the Smithsonian Institution as he pushes back against what he calls “a revisionist movement.”
Cost, Content, and Pushback
The Atlantic said the September 3 letter estimated the National Park Service would add about a dozen signs outside the museum at an estimated cost of $84,000, while also describing that what the signs will actually say remains a mystery to people in the agency working on them. Burgum’s letter previewed what visitors should know before they enter, and it justified the move by asserting that the museum is pushing “ideologies that distract from a coherent and accurate presentation of America’s story.”
Merkley called the signs “another step” in the Trump administration’s plans to undermine the Smithsonian’s integrity, and he said, "I’ll fight like hell to protect the Smithsonian’s independence so that the Institution can continue to tell all of America’s story for generations to come." Murkowski said she was a “big fan” of Lonnie Bunch’s leadership and criticized the administration’s plan, saying, "I’ve asked, ‘Where do you get the money out of your budget to do all of this?’"
Funding, Independence, and Next Steps
The New Republic framed the signs as part of Trump’s effort to publicly shame the Smithsonian into caving, saying the signs are projected to cost at least $84,000 and warning that the administration is mobilizing the National Park Service to display them around the National Museum of American History.
It also said the move follows the September 8 announcement that Lonnie G. Bunch III would retire at the end of the year, and it quoted Burgum’s justification that the “informational signage therefore will provide visitors with important context about the exhibits they are about to encounter.”
In the same reporting, the White House Domestic Policy Council said the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of American History in particular, “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly,” while the Smithsonian’s leadership pointed to its standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence, and nonpartisanship.
The next Board of Regents meeting is scheduled for October 26, and KFBK News Radio reported the Smithsonian declined to comment on the administration’s letter or whether a meeting with its board has taken place.