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<p><span style="font-weight:400">Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III will retire at the end of the year following seven years at the institution’s helm and a contentious period of clashes with the Trump administration over how American history should be presented.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Bunch, 73, </span><a href="https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-secretary-lonnie-g-bunch-iii-announces-retirement" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">announced</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> his retirement Tuesday with “very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude.” He has served as the Smithsonian’s secretary since 2019 and was the first African American to hold the institution’s top position.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Bunch rejected the suggestion that the administration’s pressure directly caused his departure. In an interview with the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/arts/design/smithsonian-secretary-lonnie-bunch-resigns.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">New York Times</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">, he said, “now’s the time,” while acknowledging that the political fight had been stressful. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” Bunch said. “And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The announcement nevertheless comes after more than a year of increasingly direct confrontation between the Smithsonian and the Trump administration.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled “</span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-truth-and-sanity-to-american-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">,” directing officials to address what the administration described as “improper ideology” at the Smithsonian and other federally affiliated cultural institutions. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The order accused the Smithsonian of promoting narratives that portrayed American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. It directed Vice President JD Vance, through his position on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to work to remove such ideology from the institution.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The White House then conducted a broad review of Smithsonian museums and exhibitions. In July, the White House released a report titled “</span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/07/saving-americas-story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">Saving America’s Story</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">,” which accused leadership at the National Museum of American History of allowing ideological concerns to influence its presentation of the nation’s history.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Trump then ordered federal officials to install signage outside the National Museum of American History addressing what the administration described as inaccurate information about American history.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Interior Secretary Doug Burgum later </span><a href="https://www.doi.gov/media/document/department-interior-letter-smithsonian-institution" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">accused</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> museum officials of allowing a “radical institutional ideology” to permeate the National Museum of American History and argued that the result was an effort to weaken Americans’ shared national identity.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The Smithsonian pushed back against the administration’s characterization of its work. The institution is structurally independent from the executive branch, with its secretary selected by the Smithsonian Board of Regents. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The board includes Vance, members of Congress, citizen regents, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who serves as the Smithsonian’s chancellor.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Roberts praised Bunch following Tuesday’s announcement, saying the secretary had “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story” and that the Regents had benefited from his “wisdom, vision and leadership.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Bunch spent nearly 38 years at the Smithsonian. He first joined the institution in 1978 and held several curatorial and leadership positions before leaving in 2000. He returned in 2005 to lead the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">He became Smithsonian secretary three years later. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“I have spent nearly half of my life working at and being part of the Smithsonian family,” Bunch said in his retirement announcement. “What a privilege.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Bunch is expected to remain in the position through the end of the year while the Board of Regents determines his successor.</span></p>
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Smithsonian Chief At Center Of Trump Fight Over American History To Retire
