Smithsonian Institution secretary to retire amid Trump attacks on museum independence

‘I have to be honest, it has been stressful,’ Lonnie Bunch III says The Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, will retire at the end of the year amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the museum’s content and independence. Bunch, who was appointed in 2019 as the first African American to lead the museums, cited personal reasons for departing, while acknowledging the pressure that the president’s attacks on the Smithsonian’s depictions of US history had taken. Continue reading...

Chris Stein in Washington · Tue, Sep 8, 2026, 10:44 AM
US news | The Guardian

Smithsonian Institution secretary to retire amid Trump attacks on museum independence

‘I have to be honest, it has been stressful,’ Lonnie Bunch III says

The Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, will retire at the end of the year amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the museum’s content and independence.

Bunch, who was appointed in 2019 as the first African American to lead the museums, cited personal reasons for departing, while acknowledging the pressure that the president’s attacks on the Smithsonian’s depictions of US history had taken.

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