White House Accuses Smithsonian Leadership of Adopting Far-Left Ideology Ahead of 250th Anniversary

The White House released a 162-page report accusing Smithsonian Institution leadership of adopting a divisive, far-left ideological framework that erases American heritage, framing it as part of the Trump administration’s effort to reshape U.S. cultural and historical institutions.

“The White House in a new report accused leaders of the Smithsonian Institution of adopting a divisive, far-left ideological framework that erases American heritage, marking the latest move by the Trump administration to reshape US cultural and historical institutions”

CNN

The report, published Saturday on the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, says the Smithsonian has moved its mission “away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.”

CNN

It follows a March 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which sought to combat “historical revisions” that cast the country’s history in a negative light and set off changes to cultural institutions across the country including national parks and monuments.

CNN reported that Trump’s aides have been tasked with rooting out what it considers anti-American propaganda at the institution, with the report alleging leadership at the National Museum of American History has been captured by a “radical, activist ideology” that is in opposition of the nation’s “noble, honest story.”

A Smithsonian spokesperson told CNN, “For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so,” as CNN said it reached out to the White House for clarification on plans for the report.

CNN reported that Lonnie Bunch III, the Smithsonian secretary, told CNN in a May interview that the institution maintained its autonomy even as it has “given everything that’s been asked” by the White House for its review.

Межа. Новини України.

Bunch also said in May that “My goal is that history is driven by scholarship, not partisanship,” adding that “The Smithsonian always does its own scholarship.”

The report criticized museum leadership for “intentionally withholding and subverting” the nation’s central story and for veering away from an “America First” viewpoint in history, according to CNN’s account of the report’s findings.

The AP story carried by 巴士的報 said the White House report was released late on Independence Day by the White House Domestic Policy Council, which it described as led by a former top Trump speechwriter.

“NEW YORK (AP) — A White House report brands the leadership of the Smithsonian Institution, especially at the National Museum of American History, as radical activists who cannot be trusted, indicating that President Donald Trump may be preparing to install his own team”

巴士的報

It reported that historian Anthea M. Hartig is the first woman to serve as director of National Museum of American History, and it placed the Smithsonian dispute within Trump’s broader campaign to overhaul Washington’s cultural and historic institutions.

The AP account also said Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., accused Trump and his allies of trying to “rewrite history,” arguing in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “There’s not one individual narrative that a president gets about our history.”

In the same AP account, the council’s report said, “We must be committed to restoring truth and sanity in how American history is presented and taught,” and it concluded that the museum “has become subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology.”