Your tax dollars just paid for Nancy Pelosi's gavel to represent America's 250th birthday.
Now the Smithsonian got caught putting three times as many liberal items in its America anniversary exhibit as conservative ones.
Now Congress hauled the museum's director in to answer for it.
Pelosi's Gavel Over the Founding Fathers
The Smithsonian's "In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness" exhibit was supposed to celebrate 250 years of American greatness.
It displays 250 objects meant to tell the story of this country.
Fox News Digital reviewed the online catalog and counted what the museum's own curators chose to represent America – and the results are stunning.
Seven items tied to conservative movements made the cut.
A MAGA hat. A Tea Party placard. A pro-life sign. A dress Melania Trump wore. A Reagan campaign shirt. An NRA button. And a sign pushing back against the Equal Rights Amendment.
That's it.
By comparison, the same exhibit features nearly two dozen items representing LGBT rights, abortion access, racial justice, organized labor, and Democrat politics.
Four items alone represent the gay rights movement – more representation than the Founding Fathers received.
One of those LGBT artifacts is a red tie belonging to a lesbian activist who called it her "seduction necktie."
Meanwhile, you won't find a major exhibit built around Washington, Jefferson, the Continental Congress, or the Revolution itself.
The White House's 162-page "Saving America's Story" report – released on July 4, of all days – found that the museum had quietly dropped the words "American history" from its own mission statement.
When the museum does get around to the founding, the report found, the framing treats it as a problem to work through rather than a story to celebrate.
The museum also stopped its Flag Day ceremony honoring the Star-Spangled Banner and skipped special Independence Day programming in both 2025 and 2026 – but found plenty of room for a pink pussy hat from the 2017 Women's March.
Hartig Gets Grilled and Gives Nothing
On July 21, Congress dragged Smithsonian director Anthea Hartig in front of a House Oversight subcommittee to answer for all of it.
Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee asked her, point blank, whether she considered herself America First and whether she loved this country.
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina held up material from the museum's "Girlhood (It's Complicated)" exhibit – content involving a 13-year-old exploring gender identity – and asked Hartig to look her in the eye and explain why it belongs in front of children.
Rep. Lauren Boebert asked whether Hartig intended to use a taxpayer-funded national museum to push racial narratives that divide Americans by skin color.
Hartig's answer to all of it?
"The Smithsonian is a nonpartisan institution we're very proud of."
Nonpartisan. That's the word she used. With a pink pussy hat in the exhibit and George Washington missing from his own anniversary party.
The Smithsonian's total 2026 budget runs $1.86 billion, with just under $1 billion of that coming straight from federal taxpayers.
Heritage Foundation's Mike Gonzalez was one of the outside witnesses Republicans called in to make the case that the museum has drifted from scholarship into activism.
He's right. And the numbers prove it.
Almost $1 Billion a Year to Erase the Founders
This isn't about whether American history should include uncomfortable chapters.
Of course it should.
The Star-Spangled Banner is in that exhibit. So is Jefferson's desk and an 1806 Lewis and Clark compass. The Smithsonian isn't ignorant of real American history – it's actively choosing to bury it under progressive politics.
The museum's own director told The Guardian the curatorial goal was picking moments where activists and advocacy groups fought to be seen and recognized.
That explains everything.
Three items in the immigration section represent the Irish, French, and Italians combined. Recent waves of Asian and Latino immigration? Nearly two dozen items.
Christianity – the faith that shaped every founding document, every abolitionist movement, and every institution in this country – gets six items total. And even those come loaded with racial justice framing.
Trump's executive order directed his own team to work with Congress on cutting off funding for any exhibit that "degrades shared American values" or "divides Americans based on race."
And after two hearings and a scathing White House report, Congress still hasn't attached a single condition to the money.
That's the tell. Republicans can hold all the hearings they want. Until they attach real conditions to the funding, Anthea Hartig will keep putting lesbian seduction neckties in America's birthday exhibit while George Washington gathers dust in storage.
Sources:
- Robert Schmad, "Smithsonian America 250 Exhibit Features 3x More Liberal Items Than Conservative Ones," Fox News, July 31, 2026.
- "Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution," White House Presidential Actions, July 24, 2026.
- "Burchett Announces Hearing on Extreme Political Activism at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 2026.
- "Report: Smithsonian's America 250 Exhibit — Leftist Items Far Outweigh Conservative Objects," Breitbart, August 1, 2026.
- "Republicans in House DOGE Subcommittee Excoriate a Smithsonian Administrator," NPR, July 21, 2026.
