Trump Eyes Smithsonian Control as Leadership Transition Looms

At a moment when cultural memory and political authority are in open contest, the Trump administration is moving to shape who will lead the Smithsonian Institution — one of the world's great repositories of American history and identity. The selection of a new director for an organization that holds millions of artifacts in public trust has become something more than a personnel decision; it is a referendum on whether institutions built to serve the public can resist becoming instruments of the powerful. Across nineteen museums and galleries, the question being asked is an old one: who gets to