{"id":225674,"date":"2026-09-27T03:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T03:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/lets-tell-the-truth-smithsonian-head-given-standing-ovation-as-he-hits-back-at-trump-attacks-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T03:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T03:17:16","slug":"lets-tell-the-truth-smithsonian-head-given-standing-ovation-as-he-hits-back-at-trump-attacks-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/lets-tell-the-truth-smithsonian-head-given-standing-ovation-as-he-hits-back-at-trump-attacks-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Let\u2019s tell the truth\u2019: Smithsonian head given standing ovation as he hits back at Trump attacks – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outgoing secretary Lonnie Bunch rejects claims the institution is unpatriotic, telling audience \u2018You cannot understand all without illuminating the dark corners\u2019
Lonnie Bunch<\/a>, the outgoing secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, has defended the organisation against political interference, insisting that telling the unvarnished and complex truths of history is an act of \u201cgreat love\u201d for the country.
Speaking on Friday at the National Museum of African American History and Culture<\/a> in Washington, Bunch received a standing ovation from hundreds of audience members and rejected claims that the institution\u2019s staff or exhibitions were unpatriotic.
\u201cThe notion that somehow this museum or any part of the Smithsonian is done by people who don\u2019t love America, don\u2019t care about America, is unbelievably wrong,\u201d the secretary said. \u201cAnd what you see in this building is great love. Great respect.\u201d
Bunch, who earlier this month announced that he will step down at the end of the year, was speaking at an event celebrating the 10th anniversary<\/a> of the African American museum, where he was founding director.
His remarks come amid escalating hostility from Donald Trump\u2019s administration, which issued a report accusing Smithsonian leaders of being radical activists and ordered a wide-ranging review of museum content ahead of the US\u2019s 250th anniversary.
Last year Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform<\/a>: \u201cThe Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been \u2013 Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.\u201d
But on Friday Bunch argued that slavery is \u201cfoundational\u201d to understanding the US. \u201cWhen people say you talk too much about slavery or that they\u2019re embarrassed by slavery, I wish I was as strong as my enslaved ancestor. I wish I could believe in America that they believed. I wish that I could dream a world anew that they dreamed.
\u201cSo for me, it\u2019s not saying, \u2018Oh my god, I\u2019m going to be embarrassed, I\u2019m trying to hurt a country.\u2019 I\u2019m trying for people to understand, how did these people believe? How did they lay this foundation that we built upon? Because everything started there.\u201d
He added: \u201cSo for me, this is really about saying, they believed in something that I don\u2019t know why they believed \u2013 that if we could capture some of that essence, what could we do?\u201d
Bunch, who began his career at the Smithsonian in 1978 and became its first Black secretary<\/a> in 2019, insisted that museum curation must be grounded in independent scholarship rather than political pressure.
\u201cYou cannot understand the greatness of a country without understanding the totality of a country,\u201d he said. \u201cYou cannot understand all without illuminating the dark corners. Curating means let\u2019s shine the light. Let\u2019s tell the truth.\u201d
The White House has accused cultural institutions of seeking to \u201crewrite our Nation\u2019s history\u201d and ordered that warning signs be placed outside the nearby National Museum of American History. Trump has also threatened to demolish<\/a> the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington after a judge ruled that he could not attach his name to it.
The departing Bunch sought to assure his audience that the African American museum would endure. He said: \u201cEvery time I walk through this museum, especially on days when I was feeling like everybody was beating me up \u2026 \u201d
Moderator Laura Coates<\/a>, a CNN anchor, interjected: \u201cDid that happen recently?\u201d
Bunch quipped: \u201cJust once or twice. But I walk through and I go down and see Emmett Till\u2019s casket<\/a> and I find myself saying: \u2018You can persevere.\u2019 So for me, this is what makes me believe everything is possible. This is what makes me believe that, no matter what anybody says, you could never erase what\u2019s in this building.\u201d
He called the museum a \u201cbeacon of possibility\u201d and a \u201cplace of resistance\u201d, adding: \u201c<\/em>What I\u2019m proudest of is that, though there\u2019ll be pushes and attempts to try to do things, this museum will stand as long as there\u2019s an America.\u201d
The discussion also featured Shonda Rhimes<\/a>, a television producer and board member, who pledged $1m to a newly launched legacy fund in Bunch\u2019s honour, which was seeded by a $3.5m anonymous donation and a minimum goal of $10m.
Acting museum director Shanita Brackett<\/a> said the fund will \u201csupport this museum uniquely and solely\u201d, adding: \u201cIt will help to ensure that we continue to reflect the values of inclusion, public engagement and independent scholarship without influence.\u201d
The Smithsonian Institution operates outside the executive branch under a board of regents that includes supreme court chief justice John Roberts<\/a> and vice-president JD Vance.
After Bunch\u2019s announcement that he was stepping down, Democratic senator Alex Padilla praised him for speaking \u201ctruth to power\u201d in the face of Trump\u2019s attacks, while the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank, pledged to ensure<\/a> Bunch\u2019s successor did not treat the institution as a \u201cculture-war battleground\u201d.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outgoing secretary Lonnie Bunch rejects claims the institution is unpatriotic, telling audience \u2018You cannot understand all without illuminating the dark corners\u2019Lonnie Bunch, the outgoing secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, has defended the organisation against political interference, insisting that telling the unvarnished and complex truths of history is an act of \u201cgreat love\u201d for the country.Speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}