Overview

• On August 12, White House officials Lindsey Halligan, Russell Vought and Vince Haley sent Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch a letter mandating phased internal reviews of eight flagship museums with 30-, 75- and 120-day deadlines and a requirement that content corrections begin within 120 days.
• The directive builds on the March executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” and instructs museums to replace “divisive or ideologically driven” language with unifying, historically accurate descriptions.
• Historians and academic organizations, including the American Council of Learned Societies, condemned the review as political interference that threatens curatorial independence and scholarly rigor.
• Smithsonian staffers report fear, self-censorship and operational strain in response to the review, with some employees warned against putting internal complaints in writing.
• Conservative commentators praised the initiative as a corrective to perceived left-leaning bias, citing earlier exhibit changes such as the revised impeachment placard as evidence of administration influence.