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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, welcoming visitors from every state and country to its doors, free of charge. For generations it has been established as one of Washington ’s most cherished and highly sought-after attractions, making it one of our capital’s highest-profile institutions. While our republic may be younger compared to other ancient civilizations, our history is an exceptional one, and the Smithsonian has been where history comes alive for many Americans, including myself.
I still remember walking through the doors of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) as a child, filled with excitement to see all the stories and artifacts of our nation. As my children grew, I made sure to make the family trek to D.C. so that they too could learn and be inspired by our rich history. From the hard lessons we have learned to the amazing accomplishments achieved together. Our nation became history’s brightest beacon of hope and liberty.
As we moved toward America ’s 250 th anniversary, one could only imagine what celebration the museum might have in store. What artifacts they might pull out of their vast collection. What exhibits they would create to help tell the story of America’s remarkable and providential founding and rise to greatness. Instead, visitors were greeted front and center with a reimagined oppressor/oppressed narrative that describes our history foundation as “unsettling.” My visit told me everything I needed to know about where this institution’s loyalties lie, and the recent House Oversight hearing confirmed it.
Current leadership at the Smithsonian seems to believe American history is something to be condemned and not celebrated. A White House Domestic Policy Council report released on July 4 highlights just how far this great American institution has drifted, and the House Oversight hearing put this on display for the American people.
Director Anthea Hartig explicitly stated in a 2024 presentation that the museum should “get out of the ‘America First’ mentality.” She went on to argue that the “scope of U.S. history” and the very term “America” should expand to include “the entirety of the Americas, not just our part of North America.” A museum whose sole function is to educate the world on America’s history should not be in the business of erasing its borders.
That mindset is institutionalized in the museum’s Center for Restorative History, which Hartig says exists to “address the harm that we’ve done as the Smithsonian.” Since when is preserving America’s history something the Smithsonian needs to apologize for?
The center’s own website says it “redresses exclusions in our national story using the principles of restorative justice.” Elsewhere, museum staff studied materials on “white supremacy culture,” while other Smithsonian resources described the nuclear family, the scientific method, the traditional work ethic, and linear concepts of time as aspects of “white culture.” When a national museum treats the building blocks of civilization as political grievances, it has stopped serving the public and started lecturing them.
This far-left ideology is on full display in the “Girlhood (it’s complicated)” exhibit. Rather than showcasing the American women who shaped our history, the exhibit highlights a biological male in a space dedicated to women and girls, infringing on the very idea of being a woman, alongside glorifying gun control and illegal immigration.
The Smithsonian possesses some of the finest collections of women’s history artifacts in the world. The "First Ladies" exhibit is consistently one of the most popular in the entire museum, yet NMAH would rather spend their space idolizing symbols of illegal immigration while belittling motherhood. It is a shame that the NMAH would sacrifice women’s achievements to satisfy modern, left-wing political priorities.
These changes are a result of a strict bureaucratic mandate. The NMAH now requires every single exhibit to address a checklist of core issues: race and identity, gender and sexuality, environmental change, immigration and migration, economic inequality, technological change, nationalism and globalism. This reads far more like a partisan legislative wish list than a framework for historical education.
The National Museum of American History should be inspiring visitors, especially the younger generation, to serve and strengthen our country. History is undeniably complicated, and wrestling with our triumphs and our struggles is what makes historical education so valuable. We cannot teach our children to resent their own heritage and expect them to preserve it.
The Smithsonian is an American treasure, generously funded by American taxpayers, and working there is a privilege, not a platform to push a political agenda on American taxpayer money. These are museums of American history, not museums of American apology, and it's time the Smithsonian remembered the difference. Smithsonian curators have no authority to edit the past to fit a present narrative. The truth distorted becomes a lie.
Representative Michael Cloud serves Texas's 27th Congressional District. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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