By the time Lonnie G. Bunch III announced on Tuesday that he would be stepping down as the Smithsonian secretary, the White House had made it virtually impossible for him to stay, according to historians and colleagues.
Since the beginning of his second term, President Trump has targeted the Smithsonian with executive orders that accuse the institution of a liberal bias and of planning exhibitions with anti-American viewpoints. The White House has characterized Bunch as “a Democrat donor and rabid partisan.” It did not immediately respond to requests for comment after Mr. Bunch said he would resign.
“He has experienced a mounting pressure campaign as the Smithsonian became a battlefield in the culture wars,” said Samuel J. Redman, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has written extensively about the Smithsonian. “Lonnie Bunch led the Smithsonian with candor, bravery and thoughtfulness that really suggested something about his long experience with the institution, his adept diplomacy — but clearly that could only go so far.”
Mr. Bunch acknowledged the difficulties he faced in the role in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday.
“I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” he said.
Mr. Redman said that, until now, the Smithsonian has been the premiere site for American history, culture and technological innovation, with bipartisan support and billions in congressional funding. He said he feared that Mr. Bunch’s departure would allow the Trump administration to appoint like-minded individuals to lead the institution and fill its powerful Board of Regents.
“This is a huge breaking point for the museum,” he said.
Those who worked under Mr. Bunch lamented his departure.
“There is a collective sigh and sense of sadness that Lonnie is leaving the Smithsonian Institution,” said Rhea L. Combs, who served as the director of curatorial affairs at the National Portrait Gallery until this year. “His impact is undeniable, and what he has done as founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and secretary of the Smithsonian is emblematic of his dedication to scholarship and the American people.”
Prominent artists, including the filmmaker Ava DuVernay, regretted the role that politics might have played in Mr. Bunch’s departure.
“His retirement is a profound loss for those who care about America’s history, not its fantasy,” Ms. DuVernay said in a statement. “He’s been treated shamefully by people who seem more interested in controlling America’s history than understanding it.”
Mr. Bunch was frequently attacked by conservative pundits, and critics said he should have stepped down long ago.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Bunch’s departure was long overdue.
“We can only hope that the next secretary of the Smithsonian Institution is somebody who takes his mission seriously,” he said, “somebody who loves America and understands the triumphs that this country has had in its 250-year history.”
But many scholars, including the members of the Organization of American Historians, praised Mr. Bunch’s “intellectual rigor” and “political courage.”
The Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. pointed to Mr. Bunch’s work with the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“He is someone who understands that Black history is American history,” Mr. Gates said, “and who helped create a space where everyone could come and experience this endlessly fascinating story together.”
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