The White House last week informed Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, that it’s putting the museums under review — in other words, adult supervision. The news came in a letter that amounted to a major front in the Trump administration’s war to retake the culture.

As I wrote in an X post quoted by the New York Times, “Given the Smithsonian’s behavior in the past few years — how it cataloged everything woke, how it gave the communist leader Angela Davis plenty of space, but not Justice Clarence Thomas, how it portrayed America in a poor light — this White House review is not a minute too soon.”

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The letter announcing the “comprehensive review” came from three top individuals engaged in this cultural Reconquista: Lindsey Halligan, the president’s special assistant; Vince Haley, director of the Domestic Policy Council; and Russ Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Times called it a “more direct shot across the bow” than an audit announced in June, which the Smithsonian Board asked Bunch to conduct. This time, it will be the administration itself that will take action.

Of course, the forces that have spent the past two or three decades capturing the cultural institutions wasted no time in screeching at the very notion that the administration would conduct a thorough review of the institution’s museums.

“Only historians and trained museum professionals are qualified to conduct such a review, which is intended to ensure historical accuracy,” Sarah Weicksel, the executive director of the American Historical Association, fumed to the Times. “To suggest otherwise is an affront to the professional integrity of curators, historians, educators and everyone involved in the creation of solid, evidence-based content.”

What a laughable assertion. There probably isn’t a single conservative among these “curators, historians, educators and everyone involved.” Somebody should inform Weicksel that the administration is liberating the culture from the curators, directors, historians, and everyone else involved in the arts management profession at this point.

In 2016, when Donald Trump first ran for office and the country was actually less polarized, Verdant Labs conducted a study based on campaign contribution data from the Federal Election Commission. It is contained in an interactive graph which breaks down the political affiliation of these professionals:

• Museum Directors: 89 Democrats for every 11 Republicans
• Museum Curators: 94 Democrats for every 6 Republicans
• Art Conservators: 100% Democrats
• Art Historians: 96 Democrats for every four Republicans
• Art Administrators: 96 Democrats for every four Republicans
• Art Advisors: 91 Democrats for every nine Republicans
• Archaeologists: 94 Democrats for every six Republicans
• Historians: 88 Democrats for every 12 Republicans

This is what complete ideological capture by the Left looks like.

Harvard did not get a professoriate that is nearly 80% “liberal” or “very liberal,” and less than 3% “conservative” or “very conservative” among its Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty out of nothing. Obviously, the Left burrows in and hires only among its own kind.

As Elizabeth Merritt wrote in a blog for the American Alliance of Museums days after Trump was elected in 2016, “we don’t necessarily create a very friendly work environment for people who don’t share a liberal, Democratic world view.” This is how ideological capture is achieved.

The numbers are not this lopsided because only progressives are smart or interested in the visual arts, literature, music, philosophy, theater, or any of the other components that roughly go under the heading of “culture” (though, yes, this is what the Left thinks).

Hillsdale College, the nation’s top conservative institution of higher education, cares deeply about these arts. Recently, it considered whether to open a Museum Studies program, but decided against it out of concern that its students may not get positions at museums because leftist administrators would not hire conservatives.

As to why ideological conformity is sought, the woke curators, directors, and conservators seek to use museums to disseminate their gender and race theories. As curator and former director Olga Viso wrote in the New York Times in 2018, “Now is the time to be open to radical change. The next wave of decolonizing America’s art museums must succeed.”

Maybe after the administration fixes what ails the Smithsonian — which gets two thirds of its money from the taxpayer, and should therefore reflect the country — conservatives will be able to regain their space. The review ordered by the administration appears thorough.

The three Trump officials told Bunch that the administration wants to “assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.” The review will focus on:

• Public-facing Content: A review of exhibition text, wall didactics, websites, educational materials, and digital and social media content.
• Curatorial Process: A series of interviews with curators and senior staff to better understand the selection process.
• Exhibition Planning: A review of current and future exhibitions, with particular attention to those planned for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
• Collection Use: Evaluation of how existing materials and collections are being used or could be used to highlight American achievement and progress.
• Narrative Standards: The development of consistent curatorial guidelines.

Accordingly, the administration wants the Smithsonian to cough up the following materials: exhibition plans and draft concepts on the 250th Anniversary Programming; catalog and programs on current exhibition content; full index of scheduled traveling exhibitions; curatorial materials; indexes of all permanent collections; teacher guidances for educational materials; copies of grants, and more.

PURGING DEI FROM THE SMITHSONIAN IS NO EASY TASK

In other words, a full lube job.

I still don’t believe that what is needed can be accomplished with Bunch at the helm — and there is the matter of the Smithsonian’s as yet unbuilt Latino Museum, which the administration wants to defund, but weak Republican appropriators in the House of Representatives just voted to continue to fund — but this review does indeed come not a minute too soon.

Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo senior fellow on E Pluribus Unum at the Heritage Foundation and the author of NextGen Marxism: What It Is and How to Combat It. Heritage is listed for identification purposes only. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect any institutional position for Heritage or its board of trustees.