White House report accuses Smithsonian museum of ‘extreme political activism’
A new report from the White House accuses the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism” and blames museum leaders for erasing America’s heritage.
The report, titled “Saving America’s Story” and published Saturday, is the result of an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March 2025 demanding “improper ideology” be eliminated from Smithsonian’s museums.
The report’s “central finding” is that “museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”
“To the extent that there is a story told at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, it is not one of ‘the victory of freedom and genius of our country’ but one of regret, tragedy, and shame,” the report adds.
The 162-page report is written by the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, led by Vince Haley, who has organized part of the administration’s scrutiny of the Smithsonian and threatened its federal funding.
A Smithsonian spokesperson said in a statement Sunday: “For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.”
Months after Trump’s executive order, he claimed to have fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, calling her “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI.” The institution asserted its authority over hiring and firing, but Sajet later resigned, saying her presence had become a distraction.
The National Museum of American History has long been among the most scrutinized of the Smithsonian’s 21 museums.
In July 2025, it removed references to Trump’s impeachments from an exhibit display, as part of a content review that the Smithsonian agreed to undertake following pressure from the White House, The Washington Post reported at the time. The references were restored a week later. (Mention of the impeachments was also removed this year from a National Portrait Gallery display, which was later revised to include the information in a new format.)
The White House has launched reviews of the content of several Smithsonian museums, criticized specific exhibits and wall texts and threatened to withhold funds already approved to the institution if it fell short. As a public-private institution, the sprawling museum and research complex is historically independent, with a federal budget appropriated by Congress. But those funds are disbursed by the White House’s budget office, and the administration has said all spending must conform to the president’s orders.
The Smithsonian has sent over files at the White House’s request.
But the new report marks yet another escalation. It accuses current Smithsonian leadership of imposing a “radical, activist ideology” on the museums and refusing to tell “the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love.”
The report pins much of the blame on the history museum’s director, Anthea Hartig, whom it names dozens of times. When asked for comment, Hartig referred to the Smithsonian’s statement.
Beth English, the executive director of the Organization of American Historians, where Hartig was president from 2023 to 2024, took issue with the report’s framing, adding that the museum presents a diverse and broad look at American history.
“In many ways, the report’s real complaint isn’t necessarily inaccuracy; it’s that the museum isn’t celebratory enough,” English said. “And that’s a demand for a single version of history, dressed up as a defense of balance.”
In a statement Monday, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-New York), ranking member of the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Smithsonian, said the report “was manufactured to control the narrative.”
“America is strongest when we confront and reflect on our history honestly, not when we are beholden to political loyalty tests,” Morelle said. “The Smithsonian answers to history, not Donald Trump. No president gets to edit the American story.” (Representatives for Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil, the committee’s Republican chair, did not respond to a request for comment.)
Under Hartig’s leadership, the museum has mounted a building-wide display of artifacts to mark the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence.
But the report accused the National Museum of American History of “refus[ing] to celebrate the Nation and its history” for the occasion.
“It has not created any exhibit dedicated to presenting a general narrative of American history or telling the story of any of our Founding Fathers, the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionary War, or the achievement of independence and the establishment of the constitutional rule of law - even in the 250th anniversary of the first of those pivotal events,” the report stated.
In May, the museum opened an exhibit titled “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness” that features 250 objects highlighting Americans’ pursuit of the ideals enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. The artifacts include the desk Thomas Jefferson designed and used to draft the document (temporarily on view at the Smithsonian Castle); the original 1813 flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner”; and the Philadelphia, a Revolutionary War-era gunboat that stalled British forces in 1776.
“We believe that this anniversary is so important not only to the nation but the world, and that our past 250 years are filled with so much history that it takes an entire museum to do it justice,” Hartig said in a statement at the time.
She added the museum would offer programming, live theater experiences and special tours “to allow visitors to immerse themselves in how each generation has pursued our shared republican ideals.”
The exhibit is on view through the end of the year.
Steven Johnson contributed to this report.