Smithsonian head says White House report unfairly characterized US history museum

WASHINGTON, July 8 - Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch said a White House report that accused the institution's National Museum of American History of "thinly veiled anti-Americanism" and "extreme political activism" was an unfair characterization of its work.

"While there will always be room for improvement, this report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History," Bunch said in a memo to staff on Tuesday. The memo was confirmed to Reuters by the institution on Wednesday and first reported by the Washington Post earlier in the day.

Earlier this week, the Organization of American Historians, the country's largest group of scholars of U.S. history, rejected claims made in the 162-page White House report released on July 4.

"We continue to review the report and its findings carefully," Bunch said.

The report by the White House's Domestic Policy Council was titled "SAVING AMERICA'S STORY: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage."

President Donald Trump has targeted U.S. cultural and historical institutions — from museums to monuments to national parks — in a reshaping that he says aims to remove "anti-American" ideology.

Trump's declarations and executive orders have led to the dismantling of slavery exhibits, the restoration of Confederate statues and other moves that civil rights advocates say could reverse decades of social progress and undermine the acknowledgment of critical phases of American history.

Trump signed an executive order last year targeting the Smithsonian and calling for the removal of "anti-American ideology" from the vast museum and research complex, a premier exhibition space for U.S. history and culture.

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"The thinly veiled anti-Americanism on display at NMAH is merely a symptom of the widespread belief among Smithsonian leadership that America is, and has been since Columbus first set foot in the New World, a fundamentally oppressive nation," the White House report said.

The report alleged that what it called the museum's ideological capture has moved it "toward an extreme political activism."

The Organization of American Historians said in response to the report: "In another example of executive branch overreach, the White House is seeking to coerce Smithsonian leadership to shape its presentation of U.S. history so that it serves the administration's political agenda - part of an ongoing and multi-pronged assault by the Trump administration against accurate and evidence-based history in American public life."

The White House launched an internal review of some Smithsonian museums last year, and Trump said the institution would face the same process as universities whose funding came under threat for policies that displeased his administration.

The 180-year-old Smithsonian, which includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo, receives most of its budget from the U.S. Congress but is independent of the government in decision-making. REUTERS