White House report accuses Smithsonian museum of erasing American heritage
The White House’s July 4 report says the Smithsonian’s history museum soft-pedals the founders, even as it opens a 250-object semiquincentennial exhibit on liberty.
The White House on July 4 released “Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage,” a report accusing the National Museum of American History of downplaying the founders and leaning too heavily on social justice. The document calls for the museum to tell the story of the United States with “honesty, seriousness, and pride.”
The report is part of President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” and the review is tied to the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026.
The National Museum of American History preserves the nation’s collections and presents a full and complex history of the United States. In 2025, the institution would continue to work with the White House, Congress and its Board of Regents while reviewing the administration’s demands, even as the dispute widened beyond one museum.
That wider review began in August 2025, when the White House announced a comprehensive examination of eight Smithsonian museums: the National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of the American Indian, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The effort was meant to ensure Smithsonian exhibitions matched the president’s directive.
The clash sharpened in May 2026, when the National Museum of American History opened “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness,” a major 250th-anniversary exhibition spread across 250 objects and 250,000 square feet on all three floors of the museum. Of the 250 artifacts, 76 had never or rarely been displayed, and the show uses iconic and everyday objects to explore the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
The White House report also revisits the museum’s origins, noting that Congress authorized construction in 1955 and allocated $36 million for the project.
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