Taxpayers Foot Billion-Dollar Bill for Smithsonian’s Anti-American Rewrite

A new Fox News analysis is drawing fresh attention to the enormous amount of taxpayer money flowing to the Smithsonian Institution. Even as the museum complex faces mounting criticism over accusations of left-wing ideological bias, Americans continue to provide it with more than $1 billion in federal funding each year.

Federal budget requests climbed from $960 million in fiscal year 2019 to a record $1.24 billion in fiscal year 2024, according to Fox. The National Museum of American History alone accounts for roughly $27 million in the Smithsonian’s 2026 funding request.

The Smithsonian has long been considered an American treasure, with 21 museums, the National Zoo, and a collection of nearly 157 million objects and specimens – all free to the public. Established by Congress in 1846, it is charged with preserving the nation’s heritage for the public. The question of how the museum presents American history is therefore one of immense consequence for every American – and especially the taxpayers who are subsidizing the Smithsonian.

A sweeping 162-page White House report, Saving America’s Story, concluded that the National Museum of American History has undergone “ideological capture,” abandoning straightforward historical education for political activism. The review grew out of President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order directing his administration to combat what he described as ideological distortions of American history.

The report relies heavily on the words of museum leadership itself. Director Anthea Hartig has described history as a “prime tool of social justice,” spoken of connecting “research and scholarship to activism and advocacy,” and said the museum works to “reframe the traditional celebratory narrative of U.S. history.”

The report also notes that the museum changed its mission statement, dropping the phrases “infinite richness” and “American history” and replacing them with a pledge to empower people to create “a more just and compassionate future” by exploring “the complexity of our past.” Hartig later said the institution needed to get out of an “America First mentality.”

That ideological turn is especially striking as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary.

According to the White House review, visitors to the National Museum of American History can find no major exhibit dedicated to America’s Founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the Continental Congress, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, or major events of the American Revolution such as Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. Museum leadership, meanwhile, has spoken of the need to “problematize” the 250th anniversary and emphasize the “gaps” surrounding the Declaration of Independence.

The report argues that Christianity receives similarly distorted treatment. Museum materials, it says, repeatedly present Christianity principally as an instrument of “conquest, exclusion, or cultural erasure,” while giving scant attention to the constructive role Christian belief and institutions played in shaping the country.

The Pilgrims are treated primarily as colonizers, Thanksgiving is reframed through a “National Day of Mourning,” and European settlement is described as a “profound unsettling” of the continent. The report also says Smithsonian leadership sought to “legitimize” and “support” the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which set out to reframe American history as a story of racism and oppression.

French sociologist and historian Dr. Pascal Pierre Pageu argues that this approach leaves out a crucial part of the American story.

“Above all, America’s story is the story of Christianity, which nurtured the spirit of freedom, stood as a guardian of natural equality, united people, and propelled civilization forward,” Pageu said.

Polish historian Professor Andrzej Nowak likewise warns that a nation cannot remain united around a historical narrative whose purpose is chiefly to divide and diminish. He described the 1619 Project approach as a “complete re-imagining of the United States and its history as solely a history of the exploitation of blacks and slaves.”

None of this means slavery, segregation, the mistreatment of Native Americans, or other grave injustices should be hidden. The issue is whether those injustices should become the organizing principle through which the entire American story is understood.

Bishop Earl Walker Jackson, a great-grandson of enslaved Americans, made precisely that distinction in comments to Fox. Responding to Hartig’s description of history as a tool of social justice, Jackson said history should instead present the facts and “leave others to draw their own conclusions.”

Jackson’s own family history makes the point especially powerful. Despite descending from enslaved Americans and growing up in a broken home and foster care, he said America gave him extraordinary freedom and opportunity.

“I think loving America is easy,” Jackson said.

Trump is now attempting to force a course correction.

On July 24, the president signed a new executive order directing federal officials to address the problems identified by the White House review. The order also directs the National Park Service to install temporary signs on public walkways leading to the National Museum of American History informing visitors of the report’s findings.

It further calls for temporary exhibits or signage honoring the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and correcting inaccurate information presented by the museum.

The Smithsonian should tell the whole American story – the failures as well as the triumphs. A national museum should not treat the country’s heritage as raw material for political activism, nor teach Americans to regard their own civilization principally through resentment and shame.

American taxpayers contribute more than $1 billion a year to the Smithsonian. They have every right to expect it to preserve the nation’s history rather than rewrite it – and to remind future generations why, despite its imperfections, the American experiment remains worthy of gratitude, admiration, and defense.