How Trump's Culture War Derailed a New Smithsonian Museum

The White House has used multiple tactics to influence Smithsonian exhibitions, including threatening letters, a memo resembling an exhibit list, and online trolling. Some changes occurred, but the Smithsonian has resisted pressure more effectively than other cultural institutions. House Republicans then pursued a new approach by amending the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act before the museum was built. The amendment granted Trump final authority over the museum’s location and barred the institution from including transgender women. Representative Bryan Steil said the changes came with White House technical assistance, while Democrats criticized the prospect of presidential control over a women’s history museum. The amended bill failed in the House, with six Republicans joining 210 Democrats in opposition.

"Ever since President Trump started playing armchair museum curator last year, the White House has employed a number of strategies to try to influence exhibitions at the Smithsonian. It has sent threatening letters, published a memo that reads like an exhibit hit list, and even resorted to an occasional bit of online trolling. The Smithsonian has certainly undergone a small number of changes as a result of the pressure, but compared with, say, the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities, it has shown that it is not so easily breached."

"Their target, the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum Act, was originally simple. It permitted the transfer of land on the National Mall to the Smithsonian for construction, and it had more than 200 bipartisan co-sponsors. But in March, GOP lawmakers added an amendment giving Trump final authority over the museum's location and prohibiting the institution from including transgender women."

"At a hearing this week, Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, a Republican, said that the changes had been made with the "technical assistance" of the White House. Democrats noted the irony of a man-the president of the United States-potentially having so much control over a place dedicated to telling women's stories. (The White House did not respond to a request for further details on its involvement.)"

"When the amended bill went up for a vote in the House yesterday, it flopped. Six Republicans opposed the legislation alongside 210 Democrats. Those six Republicans, all men, seemed to object to the idea of the women's-history museum in general; three of the four who had been in office in 2020 had voted against the original bill that intended to establi"

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