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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Trump met with Smithsonian Institution secretary at the White House
By Kit Maher, CNN
Updated:
12:58 PM EDT, Fri August 29, 2025
Source: CNN
President Donald Trump met with Smithsonian Institution Secretary
Lonnie Bunch III for lunch at the White House on Thursday.
“The White House lunch meeting was productive and cordial,” a White
House official told CNN.
The meeting, which was first reported by , comes as Trump has to
conduct a review of museums, claiming the Smithsonian is “out of
control” and that “everything discussed is how horrible our Country
is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have
been.”
The Trump administration earlier this month said it would be of
Smithsonian Institution materials and exhibits in an effort to comply
with Trump’s directive about what should and shouldn’t be
displayed.
Lindsey Halligan, who is leading the administration’s review, also
attended the White House lunch, the official said.
Last week, Halligan told Fox News that Smithsonian museums have “an
overemphasis on slavery,” arguing “there should be more of an
overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”
CNN has reached out to the Smithsonian Institution — the organization
that runs the nation’s major public museums — for comment on the
meeting.
Bunch has served as the institution’s secretary since 2019 — and is
the first African American to hold the position. He previously served
as the founding director of the National Museum of African American
History and Culture.
“I am very, very proud of Lonnie Bunch,” Trump said in 2017 during
remarks at the museum, where he also said he was “deeply proud” of
the museum “that honors the millions of African American men and
women who built our national heritage.”
In an in 2022, Bunch said that ambivalence around slavery, including
from African Americans, made it necessary to make slavery the “heart
of the museum.”
“Every nation is ambivalent about slavery,” Bunch told the Times.
“The people of color are ambivalent: Is this something to be
embarrassed by? Is this something that is better left unsaid? So
basically, I knew that slavery had to be at the heart of the museum.”
The White House last Thursday shared examples of why Trump has called
the Smithsonian Institution “out of control,” pointing to an oil
painting of the border wall; a of Anthony Fauci’s career and an
infographic in American culture, which the National Museum of African
American History and Culture removed and 5 years ago after facing
backlash.
When pressed on the infographic about “whiteness” at a 2023
congressional hearing, Bunch said he agreed it was “wrong.”
“I think that the document itself was wrong and flawed,” Bunch
said. “I do think, however, it’s important for the Smithsonian to
help the country grapple with questions of race. So, I’m not going to
run away from that.”
The White House also pointed to comments by former National Portrait
Gallery Director Kim Sajet to in 2022 about how portraits and busts
were long limited to the “the wealthy, the pale and the male” and
how the gallery was trying to change that.
Other examples the White House pointed to include the display of the
“Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride” flag outside the American
History Museum and other Smithsonian campuses, and programming at the
National Museum of the American Latino that highlighted
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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