Is the Donald J. Trump–Smithsonian Next?

President Trump has been galumphing through Washington attaching his name first to the United States Institute of Peace (after he closed it down) and then to what he renamed the Donald J. Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts..

For much of the past year, Trump has ripped down anything having to do with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and anything else he doesn’t like. He now seems fixated on the Smithsonian Institution. He directed eight of its museums (the Smithsonian’s National Zoo somehow escaped that dragnet) to remove “divisive, race-centered ideology.” The White House demanded that the Smithsonian provide it with every bit of text, artifact, and social media post that might reflect “improper ideology.” The ultimate target might be the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which features exhibits addressing slavery, abolition, DEI, and other now disfavored topics.

But Trump has initially focused on smaller targets. Several months ago, he forced out the director of the National Portrait Gallery for allegedly being “a strong supporter of DEI.” He particularly didn’t like a label next to a portrait of him mentioning his two impeachments and incitement of insurrection. The Gallery also had a major exhibit, The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, in which artwork reflected or called out racism.

Now, according to the Washington Post, the Portrait Gallery has replaced a photograph of the president with one more to his liking and removed text stating that he was impeached twice. The Post said, “A Trump official specifically complained about that passage months earlier, when the president was trying to force out the Portrait Gallery’s director.”

The Smithsonian is not part of the federal government, so Trump has no legal right to fire employees or force changes to exhibits. However, the government provides 62 percent of the institution’s funding, making it easy to blackmail the Smithsonian, as it did last December, if it did not bend to the president’s demands.

Trump’s apparent antipathy to museums was felt well outside the Beltway when he shut down the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal grant-making agency, and cancelled about 1,200 grants. In 2024, the tiny IMLS awarded $266 million in grants to museums and libraries, invaluable funding especially to small and rural institutions. A lawsuit by 21 state attorneys general succeeded in November in blocking that action and reinstating all grants, though it did not reverse the confusion and chaos among grantees.

The assault on museums (libraries, botanic centers, and more) certainly has succeeded in one regard: museum officials who have any hope of receiving federal funds will be very cautious about the content of their exhibits and programming lest they run afoul of current federal dogma.

What’s next? Who knows, but the museum world is concerned. And could anyone be surprised to wake up one morning and see a “Donald J. Trump–Smithsonian Institution” sign on every one of the museums (and the Trump National Zoo).

Email: mike@food.museum