Sec. Burgum Requests Changes to Smithsonian After WH Discovers DEI

The Trump administration is moving to restore the Smithsonian Institution to its original mission of preserving the United States of America’s “precious cultural inheritance,” instead of advancing a “divisive, ideological agenda” with a new letter to the museum system’s Board of Regents.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum sent the letter on Friday, alerting the board that his department is working to execute President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, titled “Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution.”

The publicly-funded museum system’s annual budget has been over $1 billion in recent years, with most of it coming from federal appropriations. However, the White House recently proposed an 11 percent funding cut to $961.3 million for fiscal year 2027. The submitted budget would be the lowest amount of taxpayer money the institution would receive since 2020. 

The proposal came after a White House review of the Smithsonian’s programs, including the alleged advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agendas. The review culminated in a report sharing examples of troublesome exhibits in several different Smithsonian museums, with the administration arguing that they “focus excessively on oppression rather than American achievements.”

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, who made more than $4.4 million from his salary and benefits from 2020 to 2024, has explicitly stated that DEI “must be at the center” of the institution. 

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,'” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

He continued, “We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made. This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums.”

Burgum wrote, “As outlined in Executive Order, titled ‘Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution,’ the administration has concluded that action is necessary to restore the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian or Institution) to the mission originally entrusted to it by Congress and the American people.”

“As you are aware, it is the executive branch’s responsibility to ensure that taxpayer funds and the support the Smithsonian receives from executive departments and agencies are used to preserve America’s precious cultural inheritance, not advance a divisive, ideological agenda,” the Interior secretary explained. “In 1846, Congress established the Smithsonian as a trust instrumentality of the United States and vested its governance in the Board of Regents. As an entity created to be the Nation’s foremost steward of American history and culture, the Smithsonian bears a responsibility to preserve and present the American story faithfully, accurately, coherently and in a manner worthy of the public trust.”

Burgum then reminded the Board of Regents that the aforementioned responsibility is “reinforced” by the more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding Congress provides each year. 

Citing the White House’s report on the Smithsonian, Burgum stated that a “consistent pattern of leadership decisions,” including revisions to the mission statement of the National Museum of American History, have “decisively ‘reframed’ the museum away from presenting a coherent and accurate account of the American story and toward advancing an ideological agenda that seeks to transform both the Smithsonian and the country.”

The museum has also adopted a plan that tells employees to, “whatever the topic,” tie everything to “the core issues of our time, namely, “race and identity,” “gender and sexuality,” “environmental change,” immigration and migrations, “economic inequality,” “technological change” and “nationalism and globalism, stating that “To do anything less is to shirk our commitment to relevance.”

The White House report also found attempts to normalize illegal immigration by using a curriculum that instructs high school teachers to avoid terms like “illegal alien” and “illegal immigrant,” and museum exhibits presenting the view that males can transition to be female and should be allowed to play in women’s sports. 

“Because these concerns arise from executive leadership and institutional ideology at the Smithsonian, the appropriate response must likewise address executive leadership and institutional ideology,” Burgum stated.

According to him, the ultimate effect of this “radical ideology” is to weaken the shared American identity and heritage. 

Burgum then asked the Board of Regents to meet with him and his team in person as soon as possible to “determine how best to address the findings outlined in this letter and identified in the aforementioned report.”

“The Smithsonian belongs to the American people,” the secretary wrote in closing. “It exists to preserve and present ‘the inspiring story of the United States – its origins, struggles, development, traditions, strength’ – for this and future generations.”

Burgum’s letter concluded with, “The administration is committed to working with the Smithsonian to accomplish these objectives and to restore public trust in one of our Nation’s great institutions. We look forward to working together to achieve that goal.”

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.