President Donald Trump’s order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” and a Domestic Policy Council report accuse the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History of promoting a politicized, negative view of America, targeting leadership and exhibits for ideological bias, and call for federal museums to refocus on uplifting national heritage.
In late March 2025, the president issued an executive order aimed at reorienting federal museums and monuments toward a message of national pride and common purpose. He warned about a trend that replaces facts with “a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” insisting Americans deserve a clear, positive account of their origins.
The White House followed up with a long report that lays out what it calls the disease afflicting the National Museum of American History. That report argues the museum has drifted from teaching where the nation came from and why its institutions are worth preserving, instead favoring grievance and revision over context and celebration.
The museum, the report says, should explain America’s founding and its strengths “in an honest, proud, and serious manner.” Instead, museum curators and administrators are accused of using exhibits to advance contemporary activism and to unsettle visitors rather than to lift them up.
At the center of the critique is the museum’s current leadership. The report singles out Anthea Hartig and lists a string of statements attributed to her that suggest a politicized approach to history, including that she regards history as a “prime tool of social justice” and that part of her role is to connect “research and scholarship to activism and advocacy.” It also records her desire to “get out of the ‘America First’ mentality” in historical interpretation, to “problematize the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026”, and to shift away from an “Anglo-centric” focus on the American founding.
- Regards history as a “prime tool of social justice”;
- Figures that one of her roles is to connect “research and scholarship to activism and advocacy”;
- Seeks to “get out of the ‘America First’ mentality” when telling history;
- Wanted to “problematize the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026”; and
- Wanted to shift attention in the museum away from an “Anglo-centric” focus on the American founding.
Beyond leadership, the report digs into exhibit choices and educational materials that, in its view, paint a relentlessly negative portrait of the nation. It accuses the museum of presenting America as fundamentally and permanently flawed, arguing that “the country is, above all, defined by white supremacy, slavery, conquest, exclusion, hierarchy, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and systemic injustice.”
To make that case, the report points to a range of programming decisions and content examples it finds troubling. Museum schedules, ceremonies, exhibit labels, and curatorial themes are listed as instances where patriotic traditions were sidelined and where race, gender, and identity narratives were woven into every exhibit theme, sometimes at the expense of historical balance.
Specific charges in the report include that the museum failed to hold any special Independence Day events celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, and that it discontinued flag-related programming such as Star-Spangled Banner flag-folding ceremonies on Flag Day. It also claims the museum labeled Christopher Columbus with epithets like “murderer,” “slaver,” “killer,” and “thief,” and that it “slander[s]” the nation’s founders.
The report also alleges the museum pushed identity-based narratives across its exhibits, treated everyday cultural items as symbols of imperialism, and even linked beloved figures and icons to offensive histories—claims the report uses to argue the institution molds visitors to view the country as inherently oppressive. It criticized a recurring staff meeting focused on a toolkit that called out traits as “characteristics of white culture,” and it flagged displays that include transgender-related items and claims about children’s fluctuating gender identities.
The Domestic Policy Council’s blunt conclusion reads: “the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of American History in particular, under its current leadership and current interpretive ideology, cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”
The museum did not respond to requests for comment.
