US President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to cut federal agencies’ support for the Smithsonian, marking its latest escalation against the institution.
A letter from US interior secretary Doug Burgum and White House domestic policy council director Vince Haley to the Smithsonian’s governing board said federal agencies “cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership by, for example, loaning artefacts for exhibits, enabling procurement processes and making discretionary grants”.
The Trump administration has previously threatened to cut federal funding for the Smithsonian, with the president expressing his displeasure with what he called the institution’s excessive focus on how bad slavery was.
The Smithsonian is a vast museum and research complex and a premier exhibition space for US history and culture, with 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo. It had no immediate comment on the letter.
Historians and civil rights advocates have denounced Trump’s attacks on the institution, saying such steps risk reversing social progress and undermining the acknowledgement of critical phases of US history.
Trump has also ordered that signs be installed outside the institution’s National Museum of American History to reflect his administration’s criticism of it, and his administration last year launched a review of some museums.
Smithsonian Institution secretary Lonnie Bunch has said a White House report that accused the National Museum of American History of “thinly veiled anti-Americanism” and “extreme political activism” was an unfair characterisation of its work.
The letter, dated Friday, alleged the Smithsonian may have violated anti-discrimination laws through diversity practices and asked Smithsonian leadership to meet with the Trump administration to address its criticism.
Trump has cracked down on diversity initiatives in the government and private sector and alleged such practices are discriminatory against white people and men. The crackdown has been condemned by civil rights advocates who said the initiatives address historic inequities for groups such ethnic minorities, the LGBTQI+ community and women.
The letter was reported earlier by the Atlantic.
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