Trump’s Christian Nationalist Pseudo-Historians Attack the Smithsonian
If you’re planning a visit to the Smithsonian, you may want to go sooner rather than later — before the nation’s most important public history institution becomes another casualty of Trump-era historical revisionism.
For example, on January 10, People magazine’s Charlotte Phillipp reported that Trump complained that his portrait in the Smithsonian Institution’s Portrait Gallery pointed out that he was “impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection.” The White House provided an updated portrait, “along with a new caption that has omitted text that mentioned his impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection.”
According to January 8 report by the New York Times’ Graham Bowley and Robin Pogrebin, “After a months long lull in tensions, the Smithsonian is facing an ultimatum from the White House to comply next week with a comprehensive review of the institution’s content and plans — or risk potential cuts to its budget. … [Secretary Lonnie Bunch III ] noted that it would be impossible to turn over the full volume of records sought in the time frame, and he reiterated that the institution is autonomous.”
The Smithsonian is one of the largest and most respected cultural institutions in the U.S., and its exhibits influence public understanding of American history. Efforts to politically pressure or intervene in how it presents history raise serious questions about academic independence, historical accuracy, and the role of ideology in public education.
In a recent story titled “Father-Son Christian Nationalist Pseudo-Historians David And Tim Barton Are Shaping The Trump Administration’s War On The Smithsonian,” Right Wing Watch points out how the pseudo historian David Barton and his apple-not-falling-far-from-the-tree son Tim, are on assignment by the Trump administration “to control how American history is presented at the federal level.”
David Barton, and now his son, have built their careers “spread[ing] demonstrably false claims about the Founding Fathers, the Founding Era, and the founding of the United States to bolster their modern-day Christian nationalist political agenda,” Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla reported in mid-April of last year. Barton has even gone so far as to attempt to make a biblical case for Trump’s tariffs, Mantyla noted in an early April story.
David Barton, who has no formal academic credentials in history, has long been the go-to guy for the Religious Right and Christian nationalists’ maintaining that the Founding Fathers intended to establish America to be a Christian nation that operates according to the laws of God as set out in the Bible.
Tim Barton has taken over as president of the WallBuilders organization, serving as co-host of the daily “WallBuilders Live” radio program, and traveling the nation delivering presentations filled with Christian nationalist disinformation.
Right wing Watch reported that on their WallBuilders radio program “Tim and his father celebrated the news that the White House is now threatening to withhold funding from the Smithsonian if the institution does not submit additional documentation amid the administration’s review of its content and displays.”
The Christian nationalist Bartons, claim they were integral in bringing this about.
“This is one that is dear to our heart,” Tim Barton said. “The White House warned the Smithsonian that if the museum did not submit more documentation to the administration to enable a review of its contents, funds may be withheld from the institution.”
“What they said is, ‘We want to know [the] chain of command. Who approved all this?'” he continued. “What they’re asking is, who is accountable? Who’s going to be responsible? Who gets held accountable for all of the nonsense. This is not a crazy request. Museums are supposed to keep record of who approved what, what areas, what displays, what wall mounts.”
“The Smithsonian failed to tell them who put up some of the crazy stuff that is there,” Tim Barton said. “And dad, you and I have gone through and reviewed several of the Smithsonians and there’s some crazy stuff there.”
“Yeah, I was going to point out that earlier in the year, the White House asked us to look at some of that,” David Barton responded. “At that point, you were leading a tour of legislators in Washington, D.C. … By the way, we love the American History Museum, the Smithsonian because of the artifacts, but not because of the way they present them. The way they present them is terrible. And so as the legislators went through, Tim, they came back to you and said, ‘Oh man, this is terrible and this is bad.’ And so you turned that over to the White House on how bad the stuff was, how misleading it was.”
“You were right in the middle of that story,” David celebrated.
“This is so encouraging that we actually have an administration saying, ‘Let’s tell the truth, let’s stop this woke propaganda nonsense, let’s tell the truth,'” Tim responded. “This is such good news and I’m so excited for what this could mean for the 250th celebration because this is part of what they’re gearing it for; they want to make sure we’re telling good stories for the 250th.”
The Smithsonian exists so Americans can confront their past honestly, in all its achievement, cruelty, contradiction, and struggle. The Bartons are not defending history, they are prosecuting it. And in the Trump administration, they have found a willing partner. They would eagerly replace historical inquiry with ideological loyalty; reshaping the public memory with Christian nationalist myths.
The Smithsonian was never meant to serve any administration’s political narrative — let alone the theological agenda of Christian nationalist activists who reject mainstream scholarship. If Trump succeeds in bending the institution to his will, the loss will not belong to historians alone. It will belong to every American who believes history should be examined, not edited.
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