Top Smithsonian official disputes criticism from Trump White House, defends museum's work

“The museum does not take sides in America's political debates. We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions.” Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, testified on Capitol Hill and rejected sharp criticism from the Trump White House over the contents of the Washington, D.C. museum. Hartig was named in a scathing White House Domestic Policy Council report released on July 4, accusing the museum and its leadership of engaging in "extreme political activism" and presenting "a radical view of American history."