Trump orders temporary warning signs at Smithsonian

President Donald Trump ordered the installation of temporary warning signs outside the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on Friday, July 24, 2026, escalating a long-running dispute over how American history is presented at the national institution. The executive order directs the National Park Service to place signage on federally maintained sidewalks and walkways leading to the museum on the National Mall.

The signs are to alert visitors to what the administration calls "inaccurate information" within the museum's exhibits and to direct them to resources for what it considers accurate historical information. The order states the signage must notify the public that the museum exhibits should be renovated and must promote the findings of a White House report issued on July 4. That 162-page report, produced by the White House Domestic Policy Council, accuses the museum of advancing "radical, left-wing ideologies" and using history as a tool for political activism rather than presenting it as a "shared national inheritance." The report specifically criticized the museum's treatment of the nation's founding, arguing it gives insufficient prominence to the signers of...