Trump’s pressure campaign looms over the Smithsonian’s search for next leader

Por Ashley Ahn — POLITICO – TOP Stories

President Donald Trump’s culture war has entirely remade American politics. Now, the next big fight could be over who leads America’s premiere public museum system.

The Smithsonian Institution is embarking on a pivotal search for its next leader, who former Smithsonian directors say must have the political acumen to navigate Trump’s demands while safeguarding the institution’s independence.

Outgoing Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down at the end of the year, which comes amid the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the Smithsonian to alter its exhibitions and paint a more “patriotic” version of American history.

In interviews with POLITICO, current and former heads of leading cultural institutions in the United States — including former directors of the Smithsonian Institution — said that Bunch’s successor will require a unique set of skills, including a savviness to navigate competing demands within and outside the institution as well as protect the institution’s independence.

“The next person has got to have a strong ability to work with very diverse and powerful external audiences,” said Dennis Kelly, a former director of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “They have got to be skilled politically and rather than just being a Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, but [work] across the political spectrum.”

Unlike other cultural institutions that Trump has sought to remake in his own image — like the Kennedy Center, where he purged the board and installed loyalists and himself as chair — the Smithsonian has a degree of independence and governance across all three branches of the federal government.

But the political pressure on the institution has already been immense: Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, resigned after being targeted by Trump, and Anthea Hartig, the director of the National Museum of American History, was hauled in front of Congress.

The Trump administration has threatened to cut federal agencies’ support for the Smithsonian, and Trump himself has done everything from ordering content warning signs to be installed outside the American history museum to pushing museum leaders to install a massive statue of former President George Washington in place of a modernist sculpture that has stood there for decades.

The Smithsonian has long functioned independently of the White House, former Smithsonian leaders said, as was the case when Kelly led the National Zoo from 2010 to 2017. He said he worked closely with the State Department and other federal agencies regarding panda diplomacy, but described interactions with the Obama administration as “quiet and professional.”

“This feels different in that the administration wants to have a much more direct say in the content, and that’s got to be very difficult to manage,” Kelly said. “It reminds me of a state executive getting involved in the day-to-day running of a major public university. It’s got to be very challenging for the leader of the institution to stay true to the guiding principles.”

The onus to select a new secretary falls on the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, a 17-member board which seats Chief Justice John Roberts, Vice President JD Vance and three lawmakers each from both parties. The rest of the board is filled by people from the general public, but several of the nine citizen seats are currently vacant.

By October, two more terms will expire, one of which is not eligible for renewal. Citizen members cannot serve more than two six-year terms.

The openings represent a chance for Trump to exert control over the largest museum, education and research complex in the world. The Smithsonian requires citizen members to be nominated by the board, approved by Congress and signed off on by the president. Trump could demand that hard-liner allies be nominated, and refuse to sign off on nominees not aligned with his vision for the institution.

The Smithsonian did not respond to a request for comment on the vacancies. But former museum directors say the board’s diffuse structure may insulate the leadership search in a way that other institutions quickly taken over by Trump were unable to be.

“I have confidence that structurally they can do it, unlike other institutions where the board can be changed up by one branch of the government. The Smithsonian has much more of a checks and balances situation,” Kelly said, but added, “There will be pressures, I’m sure.”

Two regents were renominated by the board for a second term in October 2025 but have not yet been approved by Congress.

It is the White House’s “hope and expectation” that the Smithsonian abandons its emphasis on social justice in favor of a triumphant account of history, said Vince Haley, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

“Very few Americans want the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to be used, in the words of its director, as a ‘prime tool of social justice’ and as an instrument of ideological activism and advocacy,” he said in a statement. “During this 250th anniversary year of our heroic founding, the least our citizens are owed is an honest and inspiring account of American history.”

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), a board member, said in a statement that it is important the board “continues to have thoughtful, experienced leaders like Secretary Bunch who are committed to ensuring the Smithsonian remains an independent and nonpartisan institution.”

Brent Glass, director emeritus of the American history museum, added that Bunch’s successor must have an “intellectual curiosity” and prioritize fact-based storytelling and research over a political agenda.

“They don’t have to be an expert in every one of those fields, but they have to have some familiarity with academic scholarship and the importance of evidence-based scholarship,” said Glass, who has assisted in more than 30 museum leadership searches since leaving the Smithsonian in 2011.

The Smithsonian has a long history of selecting academic scholars for its top post since 1846, when the institution was established. Bunch earned a Ph.D. in American and African American history from American University, and was the pioneering first director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The academic community, however, is facing its own set of challenges brought on by the White House, which has blocked funding, launched civic investigations and prompted the resignation of top university presidents.

“All institutions that are looking to increase and diffuse knowledge are under stress,” Kelly said. “So finding the woman or the man who’s going to lead this is terribly important. I think he or she is out there, but it’s going to take a unique set of skills.”

Even outside of the pressures from the Trump administration, replacing Bunch as head of the Smithsonian will be a tall order, his former colleagues said.

Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical, the oldest museum in New York City, praised Bunch for “studiously aiming to tell an honest history that includes struggles of many different people to reach the ideals that we think as a nation of ourselves as aspiring toward.”

Mirrer has led the New York Historical since 2004, and oversaw the opening of the groundbreaking “Slavery in New York” exhibition, visited by Bunch when he was developing the African American history museum.

The Trump administration has aggressively challenged the Smithsonian’s representation of American history, and singled out that museum for promoting what it called “divisive, race-centered ideology.” It also issued a scathing report in July accusing the American history museum of “extreme political activism.”

Glass, who led the museum from 2002 to 2011, said the report was neither fair nor balanced, and questioned whether the authors of the report had visited the museum in its entirety or spoken to visitors about their experiences.

“The National Museum of American History should be about civic learning, civic knowledge and what it means to be a citizen,” he said. “That’s not inciting people to hate our country, because American history has always been about overcoming barriers, and sometimes those barriers are reflecting justice.”

Among leaders of the museum community, a strong sense of pride and trust remains in the Smithsonian and its ability to not balk to outside pressures. Glass said he hopes the board takes the long view when picking the next person to lead America’s premier museum system — one with an appreciation for its 180 years of history, and not just for the immediate crisis it faces.

“The Smithsonian is in the forever business,” he said.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories