Throughout his second term, President Trump has criticized the Smithsonian Institution for what he says is an insufficient celebration of American history. A presidential aide derided the Smithsonian’s secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, as a “rabid partisan,” a liar and a failure.
So when Mr. Bunch announced on Tuesday that he would be resigning, it was another victory for the Trump administration, which had previously forced the resignation of the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the alteration of wall text that referred to Mr. Trump’s impeachments.
But even a presidential pressure campaign has its limits.
The administration’s demands for sweeping changes within the walls of the Smithsonian’s various museums have largely gone unrealized. Mr. Bunch demonstrated that it was possible to navigate the attacks by Mr. Trump without compromising the Smithsonian’s autonomy.
In August 2025, the White House gave a 120-day ultimatum for the Smithsonian to replace “divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.” More than a year later, little has been changed.
In July, Mr. Trump ordered warning signs installed outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to alert the public that the museum does not, in his view, accurately reflect American history. Those signs have not been installed.
For these reasons and more, some of Mr. Bunch’s supporters viewed his tenure as a victory. Over nearly 40 years in various roles at the Smithsonian — becoming the institution’s first Black secretary in 2019 — Mr. Bunch developed a reputation as a soft-spoken diplomat adept at fund-raising and forging relationships with public officials.
Things got more difficult when the Trump administration repeatedly challenged the Smithsonian’s long history of independence from the executive branch, demanding the turnover of internal decision-making documents and threatening to withhold federal funds unless changes were made.
In response, Mr. Bunch repeatedly made enough concessions to calm the waters without substantially altering the content presented by the Smithsonian.
The fast and furious news cycle — the Iran war, the economy, the midterm elections — seemed to distract the president and large swaths of time would go by during which the administration turned its attention to other pressing matters, with no perceptible consequences befalling the Smithsonian.
The president’s executive order last year, which called for an end to spending on exhibitions or programs that “divide Americans based on race or promote programs or ideologies,” hit Mr. Bunch directly. He had overseen the creation of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and spoken out forcefully about race after events like the killing of George Floyd by police officers.
And Mr. Trump did not temper his criticism, posting on social media that “the 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.”
In contrast, Mr. Bunch’s responses were measured. Faced with a White House deadline to change the content of exhibitions, he reasserted the institution’s independence; the Smithsonian’s governing Board of Regents adopted a resolution that called for its 21 museums to review their content for partisanship or bias.
Now Mr. Bunch, 73, is leaving on his own terms.
He took the high road in announcing his departure, saying he left “with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy” and refraining from tossing a grenade over his shoulder on the way out. Mr. Trump and the White House have not publicly commented on his departure.
Mr. Bunch may have had enough support on his board to maintain control through at least 2029, but Mr. Trump has famously found ways to get what he wants in the past.
The president essentially installed himself as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year, getting his name temporarily put on that building. (A federal judge ordered that the president’s name be removed from the performing arts center and has asked officials to delay the board’s request to inscribe it.)
In 2025, the National Museum of American History removed some details about Mr. Trump’s two impeachments. And this year, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery removed wall text that referred to the impeachments — language that had upset the White House — before adding it back.
On Friday, several days after Mr. Bunch announced his departure, the president took to social media to demand that the National Museum of American History erect a 30-foot-tall statue of George Washington and immediately mount a five-year exhibition about Washington’s legacy.
It is not entirely clear what the last straw was for Mr. Bunch.
But last month, a letter sent to the board by Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, and Vince Haley, a senior White House adviser, threatened a withdrawal of federal funds. The Smithsonian’s $1 billion budget largely comes from the federal government.
“Executive departments and agencies cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,” the letter said.
Congress maintained the Smithsonian’s federal funding after the president proposed cutting its budget by about 12 percent in the 2026 fiscal year. But Smithsonian disbursement is controlled by the Office of Management and Budget, which is under the executive branch and has announced that the money must be spent in line with the president’s agenda.
Some cultural and political observers say that Mr. Bunch realized that — one way or another — he was probably not going to last through this administration, that the White House was intent on taking over the Smithsonian.
Even if he could have survived, Mr. Bunch seemed to be tiring of the battle.
“I’ll be 74 soon, and the Smithsonian needs the energy of somebody who’s younger, who can carry this struggle on,” he said in an interview this past week.
“There is a part of me — being a Jersey guy — I’ll fight over everything,” he added. “But I want to make sure that I do what is right for the Smithsonian.”
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