Trump orders warning signs at Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on July 24, 2026 directing the Interior Department and the National Park Service to install temporary warning signs on the sidewalks leading to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The signs are to inform visitors that, according to a 162‑page White House Domestic Policy Council report titled “Saving America’s Story,” some exhibits present “inaccurate” or ideologically driven information. The order also calls for a temporary exhibit that would correct the alleged inaccuracies and for the signs to point visitors to “accurate” resources on American history.

The administration argues the museum’s leadership has been “ideologically captured” and fails to present history as a shared national inheritance. Smithsonian director Anthea Hartig, speaking before Congress, defended the museum’s scholarship and independence, noting that the Smithsonian operates outside the executive branch and that the president cannot directly remove its leadership or alter exhibits. Critics describe the move as part of a broader cultural‑political conflict over how American history is portrayed.

The order follows earlier Trump directives from 2025 that targeted Smithsonian exhibits and other federal cultural institutions, intensifying a longstanding debate over museum content, representation of slavery, minority histories, and so‑called “woke” ideology.