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After a seven-year run, Lonnie Bunch announced today that he was stepping down as secretary of the Smithsonian. He had spent much of this year and last under pressure from the White House to promote what President Trump calls “patriotic” history at the institution’s high-profile museums.
Bunch, 73, told my colleagues today that he was not leaving because of the president’s criticisms. However, he acknowledged that the role had become a strain. “At a certain point,” he said, “I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”
Trump has attacked the Smithsonian as an “out of control” institution where “everything discussed is how horrible our Country is.” A White House report this summer accused the American History museum of engaging in “extreme political activism.” (See what officials took issue with.)
Bunch attempted to be diplomatic, but not dismissive of the White House. Admirers praised him for quietly holding the line; some critics said he had showed too much deference to Trump. Now on his way out, Bunch described the Smithsonian’s role as one of exploring history in all of its complexity: “I will stand against wind and tide to prevent history from being erased, softened and made palatable,” Bunch said. “That’s wrong.”
In other Trump administration news:
Canada retaliated against Trump’s tariffs, intensifying the trade war.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow it to use a federal citizenship database to screen for ineligible voters.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to improve the health of American children. We looked at where his efforts stand.
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