U.K. Museums Association Unites With American Alliance of Museums Against Trump
2July 31, 2026
TheTrump administration’s repeated attempts to undermine and attack theSmithsonianare being met with international pushback: this week, the Museums Association in the United Kingdomrepublisheda statement, originally released by the American Alliance of Museums on July 20th, that resoundingly condemns the flagrant and politicized attacks that’ve been leveled at the US’s “flagship museum system.”
Just last week, the Trump administration issued anexecutiveorder demanding that the Smithsonian National Museum of American History install temporary signage that “corrects inaccurate information presented in the Museum.” On July 4th, the administration published a162-page reportcriticizing ways the Smithsonian and its leadership “fails in the basic task of illuminating our heritage.”
“The American Alliance of Museums condemns the Administration’s continued attacks on the Smithsonian Institution and the museum professionals responsible for preserving, researching, and interpreting our nation’s history, art, science, and culture,” the organization said in their original statement. “Efforts to politicize how museums present history, art, science, culture, and the natural world—and personal attacks on the museum professionals who carry out that work—threaten the integrity and independence of museums across the country.”
The Trump administration’s years-long vendetta against the Smithsonian has even picked on individual victims: On July 21st, Anthea M. Hartig, the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, was questioned and sharply critiqued by House Republicans in a subcommittee hearing.
In an executive order issued in March of 2025, Trump criticized the Smithsonian for promoting “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” An unsigned article published on the White House’s website that August broadened the attack by calling out a number of different museums for their supposedly offensive messaging and exhibitions.
“The American History Museum’s exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX includes biological men competing in women’s sports and argues in favor of ‘transgender’ athletes competing in sports against the opposite biological sex,” one part of the unsigned article reads.
Furthermore, in April of this year, the New York Times reported that the process of appointing new trustees for the Smithsonian Institution had been slow-walked due to Trump’s efforts to intervene.