Rep. Loudermilk Says Smithsonian Is Rewriting America’s History

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Representative Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican, is warning that the Smithsonian Institution has entered the political arena by presenting an incomplete and ideologically driven version of American history. In an interview with Newsmax, Loudermilk said the institution has omitted facts that do not support a left-wing narrative, turning a national museum system into a central battlefield over how the country’s past is taught.

The dispute has intensified as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to address what it calls ideological capture at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Trump issued an executive order directing federal officials to use available legal and administrative authorities to encourage corrections, review applicable funding conditions, and place temporary signs near the museum informing visitors of the administration’s findings. The order states that the museum should present American history as a shared national inheritance rather than as a tool for political transformation.

Details & Background

The Smithsonian is a unique institution. It receives substantial federal support but is governed by a Board of Regents and has traditionally maintained broad independence over scholarship, collections, and exhibits. Its museums hold many of the nation’s most treasured objects, including artifacts associated with the presidency, the military, scientific achievement, immigration, civil rights, popular culture, and the founding of the United States. That role gives the Smithsonian exceptional influence over the historical lessons presented to families, students, and foreign visitors.

The Trump administration’s review concluded that the National Museum of American History had increasingly emphasized activist themes involving race, gender, immigration, and social justice while failing to provide sufficient attention to national unity, constitutional government, individual achievement, and the contributions of the country’s founders. The resulting report accused the museum’s leadership of using history to advance political goals. Trump’s executive order also directed officials to provide information near the museum about the signers of the Declaration of Independence, whom the administration said were not being properly honored during the nation’s 250th anniversary year.

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Loudermilk said the controversy was created by the Smithsonian’s own choices, not by lawmakers who began examining its exhibits. He argued that the institution has selectively excluded information that challenges a preferred political message. His central concern is that visitors may believe they are receiving a neutral historical account when they are instead encountering interpretations shaped by contemporary progressive activism.

Smithsonian officials have rejected accusations that the museum is intentionally promoting partisan ideology. National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig defended the institution during a congressional hearing examining whether the Smithsonian was reshaping the past. The hearing included testimony from Hartig, Heritage Foundation scholar Mike Gonzalez, Hillsdale College professor Matthew Spalding, and Yale University historian David Blight, reflecting the sharp disagreement over whether the museum is correcting historical omissions or creating new ones.

Why This Matters to You

The fight matters because museums do more than display artifacts. They establish context, select which stories receive attention, and influence how visitors understand the people and principles that built the nation. A museum can acknowledge slavery, discrimination, war, and government failures without portraying the American experiment as fundamentally illegitimate. It can also celebrate liberty, constitutional limits, religious freedom, economic opportunity, military sacrifice, and civil-rights progress without hiding the country’s mistakes.

Because taxpayers support the Smithsonian, the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that public money is not used for partisan advocacy disguised as neutral education. That oversight must be conducted transparently and without replacing one political narrative with another. The administration should require factual accuracy, disclose the scholarly basis for disputed exhibits, preserve important historical evidence, and demand intellectual balance from museum leadership. The stakes extend beyond a single building in Washington: the outcome will help determine whether future generations inherit a complete American story—one that confronts injustice honestly while preserving gratitude for the freedoms and achievements that make the nation worth defending.