The Smithsonian Institute has made it clear to U.S. President Donald Trump that it wants to maintain its independence: that, in a nutshell, is the content of what the secretary of the largest U.S. museum complex, Lonnie G. Bunch, wrote in a letter sent to Trump, which has not been made public by the museum (the contents were leaked by the New York Times). Bunch’s response to the White House comes three weeks after the administration signaled its intention to subject all of the museum’s contents to close scrutiny, and after a lengthy article was published on the White House website with more than twenty artists, works, exhibitions and Smithsonian activities unwelcome to the Trump administration. A dangerous slope, in short, that the Smithsonian now seeks to stop.
In August, Trump had had the Smithsonian write a letter giving the museum two and a half months to turn over all materials for review, and then another month and a half to make the corrections indicated by the White House. According to reports in the New York Times, however, Bunch reportedly defended the institute’s independence but promised to share some information with the Trump administration. Bunch, reportedly said the institution is already conducting its own review of content to ensure that it is “unbiased and fact-based.” It would be the Smithsonian conducting this review on its own initiative, according to Bunch, without pressure from the White House.
“I take very seriously my responsibility to administer the institute on behalf of the American people,” read excerpts from the letter reported by the New Yorker newspaper. “Our independence is paramount,” Bunch would later add. And again, “Our content review to ensure that our programming is unbiased and factual is ongoing, and is consistent with our authority over our programming and content.”
We do not know, however, whether Bunch has firmly rejected Trump’s idea that he wants to make corrections to the Smithsonian’s content, nor is it known what information Bunch has offered to share, and on what content the museum is doing the review. The risk, for the museum, is that by not aligning with the administration’s wishes , the Smithsonian could lose federal funding, which accounts for 62 percent of its budget. As of yet, there is no official statement from the Smithsonian.
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| Smithsonian responds to Trump: "Our independence is paramount" |
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