Smithsonian Museum Has Transformed into Hub for Radical Anti-American Ideology

by Jeff Johnston | July 15, 2026 | Culture Education

Instead of celebrating the good of America’s history, freedoms and achievements on our nation’s 250th birthday, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) promotes a radical, activist ideology that denigrates America.

President Donald J. Trump’s Domestic Policy Council recently released a report explaining that “NMAH has refused to celebrate the Nation and its history.” Museum staff and exhibits focus on issues like transgenderism, sexuality, climate change, economic inequality and race.

The review, “Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage,” states that NMAH mostly ignores America’s history:

It has not created any exhibit dedicated to presenting a general narrative of American history or telling the story of any of our Founding Fathers, the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolutionary War, or the achievement of independence and the establishment of the constitutional rule of law – even in the 250th anniversary of the first of those pivotal events.

Visitors go to the museum to “encounter the story of the United States told with honesty, seriousness, and pride,’ “Saving America’s Story” says, adding that NMAH “should help the American people understand where America came from, what makes it distinctive, and why it is worth preserving.”

Instead, visitors see an incomplete, radicalized, negative version of America. The report documents:

The museum has “no major exhibit dedicated to America’s Founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, other Founding Fathers, the Continental Congress, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, or major moments of the American Revolution, such as Washington’s crossing of the Delaware.”
Exhibits – and education materials for teachers and students – proclaim false “transgender”ideology, “asserting that there are more than two genders, biological males can become ‘girls’ and ‘women,’ and men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.”
Children are exposed to inappropriate material: The Girlhood (It’s Complicated) exhibit, designed for young children, includes “the pages of a 6-year-old girl’s diary where she expresses fear about ‘getting boobs’ and wishes for her nonexistent ‘penis to grow.’”
The museum does not focus on history, but it has become a “prime tool for social justice,” training up children to be activists who support illegal immigration and oppose enforcement of federal immigration laws; engage in anti-white activism; and despise American customs and laws.
“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.’”

The rot starts at the top, with Director Anthea M. Hartig, who “was appointed in December 2018 and took over the position in February 2019 with a starting salary of $300,000.” Bemoaning her “whiteness” and bourgeois upbringing, she “has explicitly stated that she sees history as a ‘prime tool of social justice.’”

Rather than celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, Hartig said she wanted to “problematize” it.

Hartig created and implemented NMAH’s “Interpretive Plan,” directing staff – regardless of the topic – to address “the core issues of our time,” including race and identity; gender and sexuality; environmental change; immigration and migrations; economic inequality; technological change; and nationalism and globalism.

This is far from the roots and purpose of the Smithsonian Institution, which was created by Congress in 1846 after British scientist James Smithson bequeathed his entire estate to the United States to found “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”

But as “Saving America’s Story” states, NMAH has been overrun by activists who have “moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.”

The investigation into NMAH began after President Trump issued an executive order in March 2025, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” citing “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

The order directed Vice President JD Vance, as a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to eliminate “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.”

The goal is to restore the museum to a place where Americans are reminded of “our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.”

The Smithsonian Institute is a national treasure. Let’s hope the administration can achieve those goals.

Read the report: “Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage”

Related articles and resources:

7 Prayers That Helped Save and Shape America

America’s Birthday Should Be a Declaration of the Right to Life

New Film ‘Faith in America’ Premieres Ahead of Independence Day

On This Independence Day, Clarence Thomas Explains What’s Great About America

Over 80 Years Ago, Mount Rushmore’s Sculptor Warned About Woke and Cancel Culture Mob

President Trump: ‘Without Faith in God, There Would Be No American Story’

A Ready Defense of Christian Patriotism

Rioters in Portland Damage Statues of Lincoln and Roosevelt as Part of Columbus Day Protests

“Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage”