Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch announced plans to step down by the end of the year, concluding a seven-year tenure leading the world’s largest museum and research complex. His departure follows escalating attacks from the Trump administration over the institution’s historical exhibits and threats to withhold federal funding.
Lonnie Bunch is stepping down from his post after nearly four decades of association with the Smithsonian Institution, according to an announcement confirmed by ABC News. Bunch, who made history in June 2019 as the first African American and first historian to lead the institution, will leave his position at the end of the year. His tenure at the helm unfolded against a backdrop of institutional independence, navigating executive branch relations that have grown increasingly strained in recent months.
The White House Critique and the July Report on American History
The announcement follows a series of public confrontations between the administration and the museum complex. In July, the White House Domestic Policy Council published a 162-page report that accused the Smithsonian Institution of engaging in extreme political activism
and presenting a radical view of American history.
The administration’s report focused heavily on the National Museum of American History, specifically taking aim at exhibits like its Entertainment Nation wing. According to the document, museum leadership had adopted an ideological framework that treated the American story as a political instrument rather than a shared national inheritance. This review stemmed from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2025, titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,
which directed Vice President J.D. Vance to remove improper ideology from federal cultural institutions.
Funding Threats and the Defense of Scholarly Independence
The pressure on the cultural complex extended beyond ideological rebukes into potential fiscal penalties. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum threatened to withhold support from executive agencies and departments, arguing that the disputed ideology weakened a shared American identity. Despite these pressures from the executive branch, Congress traditionally appropriates funding for the Smithsonian, which operates with a long-established history of institutional independence overseen by a Board of Regents chaired by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Historians and professional associations pushed back sharply against the administration’s findings. The Organization of American Historians dismissed the July report as part of an attempt to return to a superficial vision of America that never existed, noting that the museum complex houses foundational artifacts like the Star-Spangled Banner, Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, and exhibits celebrating American industrial might. Anthea Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History, defended the institution during a July congressional hearing, testifying before a House subcommittee that the museum does not take sides in political debates and operates under strict standards of scholarship and nonpartisanship.
Bunch Refllects on His Legacy and Departure
In interviews discussing his exit, Bunch maintained that the sustained pressure from the White House did not cause his departure, though he acknowledged the timing. Speaking with The New York Times, he remarked that the administration’s stance was really just saying, now’s the time.
“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. I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.”
Lonnie Bunch, Smithsonian Secretary, via Yahoo
In his conversation with ABC News, Bunch emphasized that understanding the nation’s past requires confronting its full reality. I feel very strongly that a nation has to understand the totality of its past, the complexity of its past, in order to understand greatness of a nation,
he said.
Precedent and What Lies Ahead for the Board of Regents
This friction between the administration and cultural leadership mirrors earlier clashes. Last year, the administration attempted to remove Kim Sajet as director of the National Portrait Gallery, prompting the Smithsonian to assert its independence before Sajet ultimately resigned. Meanwhile, artist Amy Sherald withdrew a planned exhibition after learning of internal museum concerns regarding a work titled Trans Forming Liberty,
which featured a trans woman posed similarly to the Statue of Liberty.
As Bunch prepares to close his 38-year association with the institution, the 17-member Board of Regents—led by Chief Justice John Roberts—will face the task of selecting a successor capable of navigating both the scholarly expectations of the world’s largest museum network and the intense political scrutiny directed at federal cultural spaces. Roberts praised Bunch’s career, noting in a statement his pursuit of excellence in telling the nation’s story from his early days as a curator to his tenure at the top.
