The White House will conduct a review of the materials on display at eight Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., three officials in President Donald Trump’s administration announced in a letter on Tuesday.
In a letter to the Smithsonian Institution secretary, Lonnie Bunch, three White House officials — including Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought — said the review would aim to “celebrate American exceptionalism” and “remove divisive or partisan narratives” from the museums.
The American History Museum, Natural History Museum, African American History and Culture Museum, American Indian Museum, Air and Space Museum, American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden are all set to undergo reviews, according to the letter. A phase-two review will include more of the institution’s museums, the letter said.
“Our goal is not to interfere with the day-to-day operations of curators or staff, but rather to support a broader vision of excellence that highlights historically accurate, uplifting, and inclusive portrayals of America’s heritage,” the officials wrote in the letter, first viewed and reported by The Wall Street Journal.
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The letter directs museums to implement “content corrections” as directed by the administration within 120 days.
“This is about preserving trust in one of our most cherished institutions,” White House senior associate Lindsey Halligan, one of the letter’s signatories, said in a statement to The Journal. “The Smithsonian museums and exhibits should be accurate, patriotic, and enlightening—ensuring they remain places of learning, wonder, and national pride for generations to come.”
The letter does not mention content about race, but it comes after Trump signed an executive order in March directing Vice President JD Vance and members of his Cabinet to make recommendations about removing “divisive, race-centered ideology” from Smithsonian Institution museums and from Interior Department monuments and memorials.
That executive order alleged that the Smithsonian Institution “promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
The White House letter is particularly focused on Smithsonian Institution content related to the United States’ 250th birthday celebration next year, and directs the eight museums to turn over all content and plans for programming for the anniversary within 30 days. The museums must also share all other public-facing content and programming, the letter said.
The Smithsonian Institution did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it would comply with the directive in the White House letter and if so, how.
Tuesday’s letter also directed museum staff to hand over other internal materials such as information about grant recipients.
The March executive order directed administration officials to ensure that federal funding to the institution does not go toward exhibits that “degrade shared American values” or “divide Americans based on race.”
The order also said federal funding should not go to any materials in the Women’s History Museum that “recognize men as women” or highlight transgender athletes in women’s sports. The museum is not listed among those that will undergo an initial review in the White House’s letter to Bunch.
The Smithsonian Institution receives more than 60% of its funding from the federal government.
Smithsonian museums have faced pressure from the Trump administration over the past few months. The director of Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery resigned in June after Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he was “terminating” her employment because she was a “highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI,” though the president does not have the authority to fire museum employees.
The American History Museum also came under scrutiny this month after it removed a placard about Trump’s impeachment from an exhibit on presidents and replaced it last week with a less-detailed one, though the Smithsonian Institution said in a statement that they “were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit.”
House Democrats criticized the administration’s actions against the Smithsonian Institution in a May letter to the institution’s inspector general, where they called Trump’s insistence that the museums remove race-centered content “ironic and self-defeating.”
“Conditioning funding on adherence to prescribed, right-wing ideology jeopardizes the Smithsonian’s legal compliance oversight and its capacity to document American history and culture accurately,” the members of Congress wrote in the letter.
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