A White House council report is criticizing the Smithsonian Institution for trying to erase the nation’s heritage and use the National Museum of American History (NMAH) to divide American citizens.
The report from the White House Domestic Policy Council was published on the Fourth of July, according to the Hill.
In the document, titled “Saving America’s Story,” the council said the report “demonstrates that NMAH fails in the basic task of illuminating our heritage.”
The report explains:
Our central finding is not that the Museum has simply added overlooked stories, corrected perceived errors, or broadened its historical scope. Rather, it is that Museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.
As this report shows, confirmed in the words of Museum leadership, this ideological capture has moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.
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At the heart of our concern is a simple question: what should a national museum of American history do? Our conviction—like that of Secretary Carmichael, Director Kellogg, and President Johnson—is that such a museum should tell the American story clearly and fairly. It should explain the rise of the original thirteen colonies, the struggle for independence, the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and the role these documents have played in securing Americans’ most basic freedoms. It should document and share the achievements and failures of the Nation and the extraordinary men and women of every color and creed who shaped its course. It should tell the truth, including of the Nation’s mistakes and injustices, but it should do so within a coherent account of a people striving, often imperfectly but more often nobly, to live up to our founding principles of liberty and equality under a republican form of government. It should especially teach the history of an American nation that is worthy of our affections and worth passing along to future generations.
The council said its report “concludes that 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.”
Under key findings, the report highlighted NMAH’s “Anti-White Activism,” “Illegal Alien Activism,” and “Transgender Activism.”
“In both theory and practice, NMAH is a clear and institutionalized example of intersectional critical theory—an intellectual framework rooted in Marxism that seeks to radically transform society by revealing and challenging alleged ‘overlapping systems of oppression’—applied to American history,” the report stated.
The document also said, “Anthea Hartig, NMAH’s director since 2019, has explicitly stated that she sees history as a ‘prime tool of social justice’ and one of her roles as connecting ‘research and scholarship to activism and advocacy.’”
The report indicates President Donald Trump’s administration may be preparing a team of officials to take over the museum, according to the Associated Press (AP).
In July 2025, Breitbart News reported the White House was taking aim at “divisive political narratives” at the NMAH’s Entertainment Nation exhibition.
The following month, Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton noted:
In its review of Smithsonian museums, the White House has compiled several examples of what it says are overly negative portrayals of U.S. history.
In a document obtained by the Guardian, the Trump administration gives examples, based on public submissions, of troublesome exhibits at seven different museums. Some examples include a Benjamin Franklin exhibit that credits his scientific achievements to his ownership of slaves, and another example is a film about George Floyd that the administration says mischaracterizes law enforcement, according to the report.
The council’s recent report said the “serious concerns” raised in the document were about “whether America’s premier history museum still presents America as a coherent nation and heritage worth teaching with gratitude and honesty.”
“The Museum can broaden the story without dissolving the story. It can and should acknowledge slavery, injustice, mistreatment of Native peoples, and other grave wrongs,” the report added, “without encouraging citizens to view their country mainly through suspicion, resentment, and division. But that is not what the National Museum of American History is doing.”
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