Trump orders signage claiming 'ideological capture' of Smithsonian

The new order comes after a scathing White House report, criticizing the museum.

President Donald Trump ramped up his attacks against the Smithsonian Institution over the weekend by issuing an executive action that ordered new "temporary exhibits or signage" to be installed outside the National Museum of American History (NMAH), "warning" visitors about "the Ideological Capture" of the museum.

The "ideological capture" is a reference to allegations that the White House made against leaders at NMAH in a blistering July 4 report released by the White House Domestic Policy Council, accusing the museum and its leaders of presenting "a radical view of American history."

The report includes dozens of examples of exhibits and materials in exhibits that the White House has determined to be examples of "radical activism."

"Such signage shall notify visitors that the Museum exhibits should be renovated consistent with the findings in the Report and direct visitors to locations and resources for accurate information regarding America's history," Trump's executive order states.

Trump ordered the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, to install temporary signs "along the NPS-maintained sidewalks and walkways used by the public to access the Museum" to inform visitors of the findings of the White House report.

He also ordered the Interior Department to install new signage or exhibits on NPS-maintained land around the museum "that corrects inaccurate information presented in the Museum" regarding the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, claiming that the museum "failed to appropriately appropriately honor" on the nation's 250th anniversary in July.

NMAH Director Anthea Hartig pushed back against the White House's report while publicly testifying in a pair of House congressional hearings last week, where she asserted that the museum "does not take sides in America's political debates.

"Our work is governed by the Smithsonian standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence, and nonpartisanship," Hartig said in her opening remarks on Tuesday before a House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency. "The museum does not take sides in America's political debates. We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions."

Hartig, who is the first top Smithsonian official to publicly address these accusations before Congress, added that while the Smithsonian "takes the concerns raised" in the White House report "seriously," t