House Democrats request inspector general to probe Trump's order targeting Smithsonian

More than 70 House Democrats are requesting the Smithsonian inspector general to kickstart an investigation into President Trump’s executive order targeting Smithsonian museums, arguing the president’s action is encroaching on the institution’s independence. 

Seventy-one House Democrats, led by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Paul Tonko (N.Y.) are criticizing Trump’s March 27 executive order, which says the Smithsonian Institution “has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.”

Democrats said in a Thursday letter to Smithsonian Inspector General Nicole L. Angarella that Trump’s order “would infringe on the independence of the Smithsonian Institution to carry out its core mission to provide Americans and the world with the tools and information we need to forge our shared future.” 

Because of it, lawmakers are requesting that Angarella’s office “investigate the impact of implementing” the executive order on the Smithsonian Institution’s “non-partisan mission and operational integrity as a beacon of history and culture.” 

They asked Angarella to “fully utilize your oversight authority to ‘promote the efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity of Smithsonian’s programs and operations’ by providing a thorough report detailing how the Smithsonian Institution will accomplish its mission following the directives outlined in the executive order.” 

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, in a statement to The Hill, called the letter "another frivolous attempt by the Radical Left who can’t stand that President Trump is bringing sanity back to our institutions."

The inspector general's office declined to comment on the matter.

The administration argued in the March executive order that museums in Washington “should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.” 

They have pointed to an exhibit at the American Art Museum dubbed “Stories of Race and American Sculpture” and to references at the National Museum of African American History and Culture that said individualism, hard work and the idea of a “nuclear family” are parts of “white culture.”

The Smithsonian Institution was created by Congress in 1846 for increasing the “diffusion of knowledge.” 

House Democrats said the adherence to the administration’s demands would undermine the “very rationale for the creation of these museums.” 

The administration has faced dozens of lawsuits from advocacy groups who have sought to prevent the president’s push to terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within and outside the government.

Updated at 4:48 p.m. EDT