Texas Representative Brandon Gill is calling for the firing of National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig, aligning himself with a new executive order that directs signage changes at the Smithsonian institution over its portrayal of American history.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Gill praised the order as a departure from past White House approaches to federal cultural institutions. “This is the first time, I think, that we’ve had a president who takes this stuff seriously, who doesn’t just look the other way and allow the left to continue their long march through the institutions and continue shoving leftism down our throats and down the throats of our children,” he said. “I think that’s what is so refreshing about the president here.”
The order, directs officials to install signage outside the museum referencing a White House report critical of its exhibits. According to the text of the order, “Such signage shall notify visitors that the Museum exhibits should be renovated consistent with the findings in the Report and direct visitors to locations and resources for accurate information regarding America’s history.” The order also calls for temporary exhibits or signage intended to “corrects inaccurate information presented in the Museum,” and cites concerns about the museum’s commemoration of the nation’s founding during its 250th anniversary year.
Gill argued for a different presentational approach to history. “We need an actual objective telling of American history, not [looking] back on the American story and grouping different people into racial or ethnic groups or groups based on their gender or their sexuality or their immigration status,” he said. “We are one American people, and I think that’s what we need to see.”
He went further, saying the institution needed leadership changes. “The American people are so sick of seeing the left take control of iconic American institutions,” Gill said. “They want to see a museum that’s funded by taxpayers that is promoting patriotism, that promotes American ideals and values, and instead they get this kind of woke nonsense.”
The dispute traces back to the White House’s Saving America’s Story report. In the executive order, Trump said the report showed that museum leadership “does not present American history as a shared national inheritance to be taught and celebrated, but instead views American history as a ‘prime tool’ to advance ideas of social justice and the radical transformation of our society.”
Hartig defended the museum’s practices during a committee hearing earlier in the week. “The museum does not take sides in America’s political debates. We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all its breadth so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions,” she said. She added, “When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative, we do not mean erasing it. We mean adding the evidence, voices and objects that earlier tellings left out so that more Americans can see themselves in the national story. Examining the harder chapters of our history is not the same as hostility toward America.”
The Smithsonian has not announced how it will respond to the order, and further congressional scrutiny of the institution’s funding and leadership is expected in the coming weeks.
