The nation’s only national American history museum is failing its mission — and a new White House report has the receipts.
According to a Domestic Policy Council report released this week, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History has abandoned teaching American history in favor of pushing critical race theory and DEI ideology.
The findings are damning.
The museum has shifted from its mission to tell the American story and is now forcing a national “reckoning” down the throats of its visitors.
Museum Director Anthea Hartig stated publicly that history for her is a “prime tool of social justice” — not education, not preserving the past, but activism.
Here are the five most disturbing findings from the White House report.
Villainizing the Founding Fathers
With 200,000 square feet of exhibition space, the museum gives almost no attention to the Pilgrims, Puritans, or major Revolutionary War events like Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, the Continental Congress, or the Constitutional Convention.
The museum administration’s stated goal: “transform the national historical narrative” away from America’s Founding and Founders.
According to the report, there were no planned displays dedicated to George Washington or Thomas Jefferson for America’s 250th anniversary.
Both Washington and Jefferson received only a cursory mention in one display — noting they were presidents who have been used to “instill patriotic values.”
Washington’s pivotal role in the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, and his presidency are absent. Jefferson’s authorship of the Declaration of Independence, his contributions to religious freedom, his founding of the University of Virginia — all ignored.
The museum endorsed the American Association for State and Local History’s Reframing History project, which argues that teaching about the Founding Fathers perpetuates dominant groups’ power and reinforces white supremacist logic.
Instead of 1776, the museum embraces 1619 as America’s true founding. It reframes Thanksgiving as a “National Day of Mourning” and calls the Pilgrims colonizers.
Bashing Christianity
According to the report, the museum portrays Christianity as an instrument of “conquest, exclusion, or cultural erasure” while ignoring the role Christianity played in shaping the Founders’ thinking on freedom and equality.
The museum refuses to give Christianity any credit for the abolitionist and civil rights movements or for its contributions to classical liberal thought.
In the museum’s Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness infographic, the museum claims that treating Christianity as the norm and celebrating Christian holidays are aspects of white culture that need to be dismantled.
Pushing Critical Race Theory
The museum prioritized race-based hiring and special programming. Museum leadership complained that centering history curriculum around white people is dangerous.
Their solution? Use the Southern Poverty Law Center’s educational programming — an organization we now know allegedly sent funds to the KKK and other white supremacist groups.
The SPLC provided a toolkit entitled “Confronting White Nationalism in Schools.”
The museum also openly supported the idea of transferring American land to indigenous peoples and claimed that even the museum itself is tied to systemic whiteness and is an imperial structure.
The museum is no longer dedicated to historical accuracy, but to pushing the message that America is and always has been racist.
Undermining Western Civilization
The museum consistently pushes anti-Western civilization propaganda, claiming Western culture is built on white supremacy.
Western Civilization evolved from the combined traditions of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and Judeo-Christian writings. It led to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the American Founding.
Western Civilization produced Homer, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla.
Dr. Orlando R. Serrano, Jr., the current “Head of PreK-12 Learning,” criticized the logic of Western Civilization because it prioritizes concepts such as “order, organization, and taxonomy.”
Refusing to Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary
Instead of celebrating what our Founding Fathers accomplished 250 years ago, the museum chose to have an exhibit titled Entertainment Nation, which argued that P.T. Barnum’s circus symbols reflect concerns about white supremacy and that Mickey Mouse represents vestiges of blackface — then went on to feature LGBTQ entertainers.
When Director Hartig took over, she had the museum’s mission statement rewritten, changing “we explore the infinite richness and complexity of American history” to “exploring, preserving, and sharing the complexity of our past.”
Deleting the phrase “infinite richness” to describe American history and removing “American history” altogether demonstrate outright hostility towards the nation and its past.
The museum did have one exhibit dedicated to America’s 250th anniversary, but the objects focused on actual American history stayed in their normal locations.
A monarch butterfly representing migration and an immigration farm worker statue of liberty were given prominent places. The exhibit highlighted a framed photo of a drag queen.
It completely failed to address the true impact of the Declaration, the Revolutionary War, or the Founding of the country.
The museum even has a display questioning whether schools should teach patriotic values at all.
According to the White House report, fixing the museum will require a complete overhaul of its leadership, staff, most exhibits, major programs, and mission statement.
Only then can the museum develop displays that provide an education in the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, inspire patriotism, and celebrate the American story.
