White House Report Targets Smithsonian Over Race, Whiteness, and Museum Independence
A 162-page White House report released on the Fourth of July has put the Smithsonian Institution back at the center of a political fight over history, race, and control of cultural institutions. Titled “Saving America’s Story,” the document singles out the National Museum of American History and reproduces material from the Smithsonian American Art Museum that the administration says reflects “anti-white” ideology.
At the center of the dispute is a SAAM webpage, “Furthering the Conversation About Whiteness,” created to accompany “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibition that closed last September. The show brought together 82 works spanning two centuries by artists including Edmonia Lewis, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Isamu Noguchi, Simone Leigh, and Nicholas Galanin. The reading list on the page ranged from W.E.B. Dubois’s 1935 book Black Reconstruction in America to Neil Irvin Painter’s 2010 A History of White People.
The report objects to SAAM’s description of whiteness as a socially constructed category that functions as a system of power, arguing that such language reflects what it calls “anti-white sentiment across the Smithsonian.” It also goes further than exhibition criticism, naming current and former employees across the institution, including National Museum of American History director Anthea M. Hartig. A 2019 anti-racist toolkit for staff at the National Museum of the American Indian is also cited as evidence of an effort to reshape museums.
The breadth of the report suggests a scrutiny that extends well beyond curatorial choices. A footnote identifies several staffers at different Smithsonian museums, including a consultant at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art and a person described only as working on a project at the Anacostia Community Museum. The White House did not respond to questions about why non-senior employees were included.
The Smithsonian, for its part, has defended its independence. “For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so,” spokesperson Julissa Marenco said.
The report continues a broader pressure campaign from the Trump administration, which has previously targeted National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet and threatened budget cuts unless the Smithsonian turned over records. What is at stake now is not only the interpretation of American history, but the degree to which the nation’s most visible museum system can remain insulated from political demands.
