House Republicans press Smithsonian chief over U.S. history exhibits
Why it matters: The clash is part of a wider Trump effort to strip DEI themes from federally backed accounts of U.S. history ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary.
House Republicans sharply questioned Smithsonian National Museum of American History director Anthea M. Hartig on Tuesday, accusing the museum of presenting the United States as a struggle between oppressors and the oppressed. The hearing followed a July 4 White House Domestic Policy Council report that cast Smithsonian leadership as driven by a radical activist ideology and faulted the museum for downplaying the Founding Fathers and early U.S. history. Hartig rejected that characterization, telling lawmakers the museum does not take sides in political debates and that reframing history means adding voices and evidence, not erasing earlier narratives. Democrats countered that the administration is trying to distort the historical record and undermine trust in museums.