The Smithsonian Institution is highly regarded throughout the world. Visits to Smithsonian museums are often a highlight of tours to the nation’s capital.
Established by a bequest of an English scientist James Smithson in 1846, the institution now includes numerous museums and related institutions including the National Zoo, with admission to most of them being free. In addition to its National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum, one of its most popular museums, which President Donald J. Trump visited with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson in 2017, is the National Museum of African American History and Culture. There are plans for the Smithsonian to build a new Latino museum and a new American Women’s History Museum.
The Institution is governed by a bipartisan 17-member board of regents, that includes the vice president and the chief justice of the United States. It spends about $1 billion a year, which includes money appropriated by Congress and private funds.
President Trump targets exhibits at Smithsonian
On March 27, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order. It alleged that, in recent years:
Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.
Leaning in on major controversies that are part of ongoing cultural wars, Trump argued that the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia and the Smithsonian institution have “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Citing an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum entitled “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” Trump said that it sought to show how race had been used “to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.”
Trump prohibits funding of exhibits that 'divide Americans' by race
He further said that the National Museum of African History and Culture had proclaimed that “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “White culture,” and that the anticipated American Women’s History Museum “plans on celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports.”
Under the heading “Saving our Smithsonian,” Trump tasked the vice president and the director of the Office of Management and Budget:
To ensure that future appropriations to the Smithsonian Institution:
prohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy; and
celebrate the achievement of women in the American Women’s History Museum and do not recognize men as women in any respect in the museum
Trump also advocated providing “sufficient funding, as available, to improve the infrastructure of the Independence National Historical Park” for the forthcoming semiquincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
J.D. Vance says conversations about racism are 'distraction'
Vice President J.D. Vance appears fully aligned with the president’s objectives, having noted that “the systemic racism conversation is a distraction,” that it is “about making us ashamed of where we came from” (Sentner 2025).
Trump’s order comes in the wake of actions attempting to restrict the speech of other institutions. These include Trump’s criticism of the media for what he calls “fake news”; his purge of the Kennedy Center board of directors and his installation as its chair; his attempts to deport resident aliens who have participated in political demonstrations; his efforts to penalize law firms that do not support administration policies; and his moves to withdraw funds from universities that pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
History association supports Smithsonian
The American Historical Association issued a statement on March 31, 2025, joined by a number of other organizations. Alleging that Trump’s order “egregiously misrepresents the work of the Smithsonian Institution, it noted that “the stories that have shaped our past include not only elements that make us proud but also aspects that make us acutely aware of tragedies in our nation’s history. No person, no nation, is perfect, and we should all—as individuals and as nations—learn from our imperfections.”
The historical association statement further observed that “Patriotic history celebrates our nation’s many great achievements. It also helps us grapple with the less grand and more painful parts of our history. Both are part of a shared past that is fundamentally America. We learn from the past to inform how we can best shape our future.” By providing a history with the integrity necessary to enable all Americans to be all they can possibly be, the Smithsonian is fulfilling its duty to all of us.”
Not the first time critics have attacked Smithsonian exhibits
Trump has not been the first to criticize the Smithsonian.
In 1978, an individual and two religious groups sued the institution, objecting to an exhibit on evolution at the National Museum of Natural History Museum. They alleged that the museum presented evolution “as the only credible theory of the origin of life,” thus “violating the government’s role of religious neutrality in violation of the First Amendment,” according to the district court’s opinion. However, the court dismissed the case finding that the evolution exhibits were within the museum’s statutory authority and did not violate the establishment or free exercise of religion clauses of the First Amendment.
In 1994, the Smithsonian was criticized for a planned exhibit of the Enola Gay, which had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, which critics thought paid more attention to Japanese victims than to American veterans.
In 2023, the Institution was accused of disrespecting a group of pro-life students from South Carolina who were touring the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Young and Cruz, 2025).
That same year, the secretary of the Smithsonian apologized for the manner in which it had collected brains and body parts, mostly from racial minorities, in attempts to prove that white people were superior to members of other races (Kaur 2023).
Who controls Smithsonian's displays
As a general rule, governments cannot punish speech on the basis of its viewpoint or subject matter. Under the doctrine of government speech, however, governmental institutions are not required to give equal attention to all points of view. The Smithsonian is an independent trust instrumentality rather than a governmental agency, which makes the issue of who should control the content of its displays more problematic.
Congress is responsible for governmental funding of the institution so the reaction of its members to Trump’s order, and the reaction of their constituents, are likely to be quite important.
John R. Vile is a political science professor and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.