The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to install roughly a dozen warning signs outside the National Museum of American History. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum disclosed the initiative in a September letter, aiming to warn visitors about what the White House characterizes as ideological bias in the institution.
The campaign to reshape how the Smithsonian presents the nation’s past is moving from policy reports into the physical space of the capital. The National Park Service expects to install approximately a dozen signs outside the National Museum of American History at an estimated cost of about $84,000, according to a Sept. 3 letter from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to Sen. Jeff Merkley, obtained by The Atlantic.
Interior Department Details Costs and Temporary Signage
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum outlined the administration’s implementation plans in a Sept. 3 letter directed to Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over Smithsonian funding. Burgum disclosed that the Interior Department is preparing about a dozen signs, expected to cost roughly $7,000 apiece.
The letter provides the clearest indication since Trump issued the order in July that his administration intends to carry it out – and it offers new details about what visitors may encounter. Burgum said the signs, which he described as temporary, have not yet been finalized.
The letter also responded to an Aug. 6 inquiry from Merkley and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the chair of the same subcommittee. The senators asked Burgum to explain how the Interior Department would implement Trump’s order, including how many signs it planned to install, what they would say, who would write them, how long they would remain in place and how much the effort would cost. In another letter to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Burgum addressed questions surrounding Trump’s March 2025 executive order, titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.
The order accused a nationwide revisionist movement
of portraying the United States’ founding principles and major historical achievements in a negative way, arguing that such efforts diminish the country’s accomplishments, according to The New York Times.
White House Targets Museum Curation and Leadership
The signage initiative follows a 162-page report released by the White House on July 4 accusing the American History Museum and its director, Anthea Hartig, of promoting extreme political activism.
The report, which rattled Smithsonian employees, scrutinized current and former exhibits and drew extensively from public comments by Hartig and other Smithsonian officials.
Burgum echoed many of those criticisms in his response to the senators, devoting much of the seven-page letter to comments by Hartig and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III on race, immigration, gender and the role museums can play in addressing social issues. Burgum argued that visitors should be told about those views before entering the museum.
Burgum said the signs would provide visitors with information about the viewpoints of museum curators, whom he accused of turning the museum from a place that accurately and coherently
tells the nation’s story into a vehicle for personal, radical ideologies.
“The informational signage therefore will provide visitors with important context about the exhibits they are about to encounter and the personal viewpoints that the curators of the exhibits are seeking to advance,” Burgum wrote.
Smithsonian Defends Nonpartisan Scholarship
Smithsonian officials have consistently defended the institution’s approach as grounded in scholarship, accuracy, and nonpartisanship. National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig has told lawmakers that the museum does not take sides in contemporary political debates and instead seeks to preserve evidence of American life so visitors can form their own conclusions.
Bunch has previously said the White House’s report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.
The Smithsonian Institution declined to comment on Burgum’s letter.
Broader Pressure Campaign and Leadership Transition
The planned signs are one piece of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to reshape how the Smithsonian presents American history, an effort that has intensified in recent months through executive orders, reviews of museum exhibits and threats to withhold some forms of federal support from the institution. The administration has separately threatened to cut off some federal agencies’ support for the institution – including by withholding artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants – if Smithsonian leaders do not address the White House’s objections.
This mounting pressure comes as the Smithsonian prepares for a leadership transition. Bunch announced last week that he plans to retire. He told The Washington Post that his decision was unrelated to the administration’s pressure campaign, and he has defended the institution’s independence and its approach to presenting complex aspects of American history.
The Smithsonian receives both federal and private funding but is not an executive branch agency. It is governed by a Board of Regents that includes members of Congress, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Vice President JD Vance and private citizens.