The Smithsonian has withstood Trump’s attacks so far. But the political pressure is mounting.

WASHINGTON — Even as President Trump’s Great American State Fair dominated the National Mall amid the nation’s 250th anniversary, the White House continued to train a probing eye on a nearby building that framedthe extravaganza.

On July 4, the White House Domestic Policy Council released a accusing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History of focusing far too much on the country’s shortcomings and not enough on its triumphs, using the American story “as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”

In a sign of mounting political pressure on the museum, its director, Anthea Hartig, was called to testify before two House panels this week on back-to-back days. Hartig was grilled by Republican lawmakers over exhibitions they found objectionable on both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, while they repeatedly questioned her love of country and political intentions.

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Three recent exhibitions especially incensed GOP lawmakers: “Girlhood (It’s Complicated),” which included a diary of a child questioning their gender identity; “Entertainment Nation,” that highlighted the work of drag queens; and “Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall,” that displayed a bondage harness.

“You have pictures of bondage, you have some overtly sexual things up there, you have transgendered folks,” said Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency that hosted the hearing on Tuesday. “In another exhibit, a 6-year-old girl asked why she doesn’t have male genitalia. Do you really think that content is appropriate for children? I mean, do you think little girls have penises?”

Hartig defended the “Girlhood” exhibition, saying it was not designed for children and noted the museum had posted a label warning parents at the exhibit’s entrance.

Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina took the criticism even further Tuesday, accusing Hartig of representing “queer pedophiles, indoctrination, grooming of kids at an American history museum, and it sounds like you’re proud of it.”

For her part, Hartig, who has been in the role since 2019, defended the museum’s integrity and political neutrality across both hearings.

“When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative, we don’t mean erasing it; we mean adding the evidence, the voices, the objects that earlier tellings left out so that more Americans can see themselves reflected in the national story,” Hartig said in her opening statement Tuesday. “We tell the truth about the times that the country fell short of its own founding ideals. Telling our story fully is a form of respect for the American people and a commitment to constantly being in pursuit of a more perfect union.”

But a “monthslong investigation,”by the Trump administration contended “the Museum purposely presents America as a problematic country irredeemably conceived, founded by deeply flawed men, and still operating today as an instrument of systemic racism and oppression.”

Among the report’s key findings about the museum: the Founding Fathers’ achievements are given insufficient reverence; some programming represents “anti-white,” “illegal alien,” and transgender activism; and the institution is being run by “a radical, activist cohort dedicated to reframing the American story to serve its ideological ends.”

In a memo to staff, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch pushed back against the White House’s framing. “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 wrote. “At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story.”

It’s not the first shot the Trump administration has taken at the country’s premier assembly of museums. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled: “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directing Vice President JD Vance — in his role as an ex-officio member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents — to prohibit spending on exhibits inconsistent with the administration’s ideology and appoint citizen members to the board who will advance administration priorities.

A few months later, Kim Sajet, then-director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, resigned after Trump called for her ouster over diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the museum. The administration has also pressured the Smithsonian to change some of the wall text in its museums — including passages that reference Trump’s impeachment — and to hand over records explaining how the institution curates exhibits.

Democrats present at the congressional hearings framed Trump’s outrage with the Smithsonian as the latest in a series of attempts to control the country’s historical narrative.

“The president has spent his term reaching into the institutions that keep our national memory, trying to bend them to his will,” Representative Joseph Morelle of New York said at Wednesday’s hearing hosted by the Committee on House Administration, on which he is the top Democrat.

Yet the Smithsonian has so far mostly resisted the White House’s more extreme wishes, given it is technically independent from the executive branch. Though the institution receives about 60 percent of its $1.25 billion operating budget from the federal government, decision-making authority over the Smithsonian’s collection of museums falls to its Board of Regents, comprising the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the vice president, six members of Congress (equally split among Republicans and Democrats), and nine citizens who serve six-year terms.

The regents have largely backed Bunch’s rebuttals thus far, but the Smithsonian chief, who has a tense relationship with Trump, has publicly acknowledged his time there is likely coming to a close as vacancies on the board stack up. Currently, three slots remain unfilled.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported the Trump administration is hoping to fill the vacancies with people amenable to its vision of the Smithsonian. The Republican-controlled Congress has yet to vote on replacements for the term-limited regents. This fall, the terms of three additional members expire, opening the door for Trump to stack the panel in his favor if Vance successfully influences the nomination of replacements.

Michigan’s Democratic Senator Gary Peters, a Smithsonian regent, told the Globe, “We’d like to get [the vacancies] filled, but we’re working with the White House and they haven’t provided any names yet.”

The vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the status of the vacancies.

Representative Carlos Giménez, a Florida Republican and Smithsonian regent, said new board appointments are stalled because the potential replacements “just need to be vetted more.”

“I’m disturbed by the direction that the Smithsonian has taken. I’m certainly disturbed by [Hartig] who was just here,” he said after the hearing Wednesday. “We need to tell history just by telling history, not by having some kind of agenda attached to it or your own personal beliefs attached to it. I’m OK telling two sides of the story, but I’m not OK pushing people to one side of the story.”

Summoned as a witness by the Republican majority at both hearings, Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, called on Congress “to clean house and relieve all Smithsonian leadership of their duties.”

ButDavid Blight, a professor of history at Yale University who was invited by Democrats as a witness to both hearings, warned the museum’s purpose is not to tell a rosy narrative about its subject.

“If all [attendees] learn is a patriotic story, then frankly, professional curators and historians have not done their jobs,” he said. “We do not serve the state; we serve the practice of the creation and dissemination of knowledge.”