The Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, will retire at the end of the year amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the museum’s content and independence.
Bunch, who was appointed in 2019 as the first African American to lead the museums, cited personal reasons for departing, while acknowledging the pressure that the president’s attacks on the Smithsonian’s depictions of US history had taken.
“There is no place like the Smithsonian – it has been one of the great loves of my life, and I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together,” Bunch, 73, said in a statement. “I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.”
“It was really just saying, now’s the time,” Bunch, 73, told the New York Times. He added: “I have to be honest, it has been stressful. And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”
Trump largely left the Smithsonian alone during his first term, but sought to align its content with his administration’s policies shortly after returning to the White House.
In March 2025, the US president signed an executive order accusing the museum of coming “under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology”, and outlining steps to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness”.
Two months later, he tried to fire Kim Sajet as director of the National Portrait Gallery, calling her “a highly partisan person” and a “strong supporter” of the diversity and equity programs his administration was seeking to ban. Bunch pushed back, and the Smithsonian issued a statement affirming that the power to hire and fire lay with him, but Sajet nonetheless resigned in June 2025.
Trump has kept up his pressure campaign in recent months, and in July ordered the National Museum of American History to display signs that accuse it of inaccuracy, though those have yet to appear.
A historian who previously led the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Bunch acknowledged to the Times that he had to choose his battles in the job.
“My goal has been to win, not to make me feel good,” he said. “To win – to protect the Smithsonian – there were times I would fight, make clear what the red lines were. And there were other times I let things go.”
Bunch’s replacement will be selected by the Smithsonian’s 17-member board of regents, which is led by John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court. The panel also includes JD Vance, three Democratic members of Congress and three Republicans, as well as nine private citizens.
Three of those citizens’ terms expired recently, however, and the Trump administration has not yet announced replacements.
Roberts praised Bunch for having “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story”, adding: “The Regents, and the Smithsonian, have benefited greatly from his wisdom, vision and leadership. We look forward to working with him in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for his successor.”