White House Threatens Smithsonian Funding Over Discrimination Claims

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Trump administration is threatening to cut discretionary grants to the Smithsonian Institution and accuses the organization of violating federal antidiscrimination law. This is the latest action in ongoing interventions by the administration.

On August 28, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Vince Haley, assistant to the president for domestic policy, sent a letter to the Smithsonian's board of regents. The letter warned that the institution could lose support from executive agencies, although Congress provides the majority of its funding, which totals over $1 billion annually. The Washington Post first reported on the letter.

Neither the Smithsonian nor the museum immediately responded to a request for comment. Burgum and Haley stated that the White House Domestic Policy Council recently published a report titled“Saving America's Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage.” Following this, Trump issued an executive order,“Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution,” asserting that“current leadership of both the Smithsonian Institution and the [National Museum of American History] cannot be trusted to tell America's story with honesty and gratitude.”

The letter claims the National Museum of American History adopted a new“Interpretive Plan” that directs staff to link all subjects to“core issues of our time,” including topics such as race and identity, gender and sexuality, climate change, immigration, economic inequality, technological change, and nationalism and globalism. The letter quotes the plan as saying,“To do anything less is to shirk our commitment to relevance.”

The report also accused the museum of attempting to“legitimize illegal immigration and open borders” and to“present the view that biological men can be women and should be permitted to compete in women's sports.”

The letter specifies that the Smithsonian“enjoys support from executive departments and agencies” and that“Those executive departments and agencies cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership by, for example, loaning artifacts for exhibits, enabling procurement processes and making discretionary grants.” Furthermore, the letter alleges that the institution's“institutional culture may have resulted in significant violations of Federal antidiscrimination law, including creating a hostile work environment” by allocating opportunities and funding based on race, ethnicity, and other protected characteristics.

Burgum and Haley also claimed, without providing examples, that the Smithsonian's culture has“corrupted” the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). The AAM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Burgum's office also did not immediately respond to ARTnews's request for clarification on which executive agencies would specifically cease support or how the Smithsonian allegedly corrupted the AAM. The White House, when asked for comment on these issues, provided a statement from Haley that reiterated his stance on the museum but did not address these specific questions.

In March 2025, two months into his second term, Trump issued the executive order“Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which targets what he termed“anti-American ideology” at the Smithsonian. While heavily publicly funded, the Smithsonian Institution is not government-controlled, as established by Congress in 1846.

The administration's interventions at the Smithsonian have been ongoing. In July, the administration ordered signage outside the National Museum of American History (NMAH) to flag what it called“inaccurate information” in its exhibits. Also in July, the museum's director, Anthea Hartig, faced questions such as,“Are you America first? Do you love America?” during two congressional hearings. The AAM issued a statement in July condemning the administration's actions against the Smithsonian, and the International Council of Museums (ICOM) released a statement last month pledging its“unwavering support” for the institution.

Source: ARTnews

MENAFN03092026000070012507ID1111618720