The Smithsonian Institution tries to run out the clock

The snake-bitten leaders of the Smithsonian Institution on Monday forced a vote by their governing board of Regents to transfer a building on the National Mall to the controversial National Museum of the American Latino. It was, at best, a delaying tactic by a woke leadership trying to run out the clock on the Trump administration.In fact, just before the vote, the administration released a stern letter to the Regents, requesting that they meet in person with the Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and the head of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council Vince Haley, so the members can explain what they will do to rein in a Smithsonian leadership currently using the museums to indoctrinate Americans against their own country.So Monday’s vote couldn’t have come at a worse time. It took place in an unscheduled emergency Zoom call meeting of the Regents, with practically no Republican representation, transferring the Smithsonian-owned Arts and Industries Building to the Latino museum. The maneuver allowed the Smithsonian leaders to duck a congressional vote they knew they would lose.Why the AIB? Because all the other available properties are owned by the National Park Service, a bureau of the Department of the Interior, and transferring any of them would have required a vote of Congress.But even transferring its own building requires consultation with several officials under the museum’s authorizing statute. And it appears that, in their haste, the Smithsonian leadership skipped this part. So this might be a play under review soon.Retrofitting the AIB is expected to cost the hardworking American taxpayer almost $1 billion and about $50 million per year to operate, according to estimates I have received. And that is only an initial estimate, in a town where budgetary forecasts are written in sand.But it is likely to be much more costly for another reason. This ugly outcome of a kangaroo board vote may be, at best, temporary.The AIB is a choice property on the National Mall, a 19th-century building right next to the Smithsonian “Castle,” the iconic structure that houses the museum’s administrative offices.However, the leadership of the Latino Museum has expressed a preference for developing a building with their own, “Hispanic-style” architecture. This means that the Smithsonian may try a second vote down the line, when it thinks the political alignment in Congress is more propitious, to transfer one of the NPS properties to the Latino Museum.And developing that property from scratch would surely cost more than retrofitting the AIB. Even worse, because there is no “Latino architecture” — it’s a government category created by OMB — there might also be the cost of a study on what to do.The Indian museum solved the same problem by sending its architects to consult with “Native American tribes from all over North and South America to determine what elements were essential for the museum.”And given that “Hispanics” are Americans with roots everywhere from the Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego, we may have to see the same junketeering in search of an architectural style.All for a “Latino Museum” that has already shown itself to be an incubator of anti-American grievances, not a celebration of immigrant groups realizing the American Dream. Indeed, it has proved so biased that House appropriators cut off funding in 2023 and later restored it. Last month, The Heritage Foundation, where I work, issued this report graphically showing just how biased the Latino Museum has been even before it has its own building.The Latino Museum was approved at nearly midnight on Dec. 27, 2020, tucked into the $1 trillion Omnibus Bill that President Trump called a monstrosity but was essentially forced to sign.His administration has tried to zero out funding for the Latino Museum and has been very critical of the entire Smithsonian leadership from the beginning of its second term, and rightly so. On March 27 last year, the administration’s opening salvo came in an Executive Order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which explained:“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States.”Sadly, but not surprisingly, the Smithsonian leaders, starting with Secretary Lonnie Bunch, have refused to cooperate. They insist on its status as an independent agency that, while taking in $1.1 billion from the American taxpayer, pretends to remain unaccountable for that money.The administration, led by Vince Haley, kept reaching out to Bunch, reminding him that the Smithsonian belongs to all the American people, and not just to the left side of the political spectrum.On Independence Day this year, Haley’s Domestic Policy Council published a devastating 162-page report detailing how the National Museum of American History skews its exhibits to show America in the worst possible light.The letter released Monday by Burgum and Haley requested that the board members meet with them to explain what they are doing to rein in leaders currently using the museums to indoctrinate Americans against their own country.“The administration has concluded that action is necessary to restore the Smithsonian Institution to the mission originally entrusted to it by Congress and the American people,” Burgum and Haley said in their letter, addressed to the Members of the Board of Regents.DESPERATE SMITHSONIAN EYES LOOPHOLE FOR LATINO MUSEUM“Accordingly, it is respectfully requested that you meet with us in person at your earliest convenience to determine how best to address the findings outlined in this letter and identified in the aforementioned report,” said the letter. “The Smithsonian belongs to the American people.”It’s past time that Bunch and the rest of the leaders understand what this means.