The Trump administration is holding the Smithsonian Institution accountable for turning the National Museum of American History into a vehicle for extreme political activism and inappropriate sexual content aimed at children—directly violating President Donald Trump’s March executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
A White House report released on July 4 details how the museum has abandoned objective scholarship in favor of radical ideology. Most outrageously, exhibits include sexually suggestive materials completely unfit for young visitors. Among the most disturbing items highlighted: pages from a six-year-old girl’s diary in which she expresses fear about “getting boobs” and wishes for a nonexistent “penis to grow.” This is not education—it is grooming disguised as history, pushing transgender confusion onto children in a taxpayer-funded national institution.
The report also flags magazine covers featuring nude young women and a rubber “crotch harness designed for sadomasochism sexual activity.” Such content has no place in a museum dedicated to American history, especially one programming for America’s 250th anniversary. This ideological capture prioritizes activist agendas over protecting innocence and telling the nation’s story honestly.
Museum director Anthea Hartig, in charge since 2019, embodies the problem. She has openly declared history a “prime tool of social justice” and views her role as connecting “research and scholarship to activism and advocacy.” Hartig has pushed to “problematize” the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, complained that “loving America is very complicated,” and sought to shift focus away from an “Anglo-centric” Founding. The White House rightly calls this the language of an activist, not an objective historian.
The Entertainment National exhibit further reveals the rot: claiming P.T. Barnum’s circus symbols reflect “white supremacy,” labeling ukuleles products of “U.S. imperialism,” portraying Wild West shows as theater for Indigenous subjugation, and linking Mickey Mouse to “blackface minstrelsy.” These are not neutral facts—they are divisive, anti-American narratives designed to indoctrinate students and teachers.
President Trump’s executive order demands the museum present America’s achievements and failures within a coherent account of a people striving toward liberty and equality—worthy of affection and transmission to future generations. The current exhibits blatantly violate that directive by sexualizing childhood and framing the American story through a lens of guilt and grievance.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III rejected the report in a memo, claiming the museum tells the “fullness of America’s story” through scholarship and accuracy. Empty words. When a national museum displays a little girl’s gender confusion diary and sadomasochistic gear, it has abandoned history for radical gender ideology.
The Trump administration is right to demand change. Taxpayers should not fund the sexual and ideological corruption of children under the guise of “education.” America’s museums must return to truth, sanity, and patriotism—or face real accountability.
