A Historian Walked Into the Smithsonian and Discovered the Scholars There Aren’t Scholars Anymore

Doctor Jody Edward Ginn hadn't set foot inside the Smithsonian's American history museum since 2012.

He drove from Texas to see it again after reading a White House report about what it had become.

What he found made him say something no museum professional says lightly.

He Said the Quiet Part Out Loud

Ginn walked through the National Museum of American History expecting change.

He wasn't prepared for what he actually saw.

It was, in his words, a completely different place than the one he remembered from 2012.

Ginn didn't stop at noticing the difference. He named exactly what he thinks caused it.

"They're activists," Ginn said.

That's not a politician talking. That's a career historian looking at his own profession and refusing to sugarcoat what he saw.

He said the museum's mission is now activism dressed up as history, and that he no longer considers the people running it scholars.

Ginn also described a graphic, sexually explicit display geared toward visitors of all ages, calling it completely out of step with what museums looked like just a few years ago.

The White House Already Had the Receipts

Ginn's trip wasn't a random visit.

He made it after reading a 162-page Domestic Policy Council report titled "Saving America's Story."

The report accuses the museum of ideological capture by a radical, activist ideology.

The findings claim the museum glosses over the Founders and the country's genuine achievements, framing American history as a story of division instead of something all Americans can take pride in.

The report landed on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Trump had already flagged this problem over a year earlier, signing an executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" and specifically calling out the Smithsonian for promoting divisive, race-centered ideology.

Ginn's independent visit didn't contradict the administration's findings.

It confirmed them from someone with no political appointment and no White House talking points to defend.

This Didn't Happen Overnight and Ginn Knows Exactly Why

Ginn pointed to a 2017 guide for museum professionals called the MASS Action Toolkit, short for Museum as Site for Social Action.

The guide references the 2014 Ferguson protests directly and describes objectivity itself as a characteristic of "white supremacy culture."

Read that again.

A framework used to train museum staff explicitly teaches that neutral, fact-based presentation of history is itself a symptom of racism.

Once that idea takes hold inside an institution, activism isn't a deviation from the mission.

It becomes the mission.

Ginn described the Smithsonian as the highest-profile example of a shift that has been building across the entire museum profession for years.

Fixing This Requires More Than a New Exhibit Label

Ginn isn't optimistic that cosmetic changes will solve anything.

He said the museum needs an entirely new staff committed to scholarly standards and non-politicized educational programming before anything actually changes.

He's not hopeful that happens without a massive effort to replace the people currently driving the shift.

Every American funds this museum through their tax dollars.

They deserve a National Museum of American History that actually teaches history, not one that treats the Founders as a footnote and turns fourth grade field trips into activist training sessions.

Ginn didn't need a political title to see it. He just needed to walk through the door.

Sources:

• Fox News, "Historian blasts Smithsonian's activism shift after first visit in over a decade: 'Completely different place,'" Fox News, August 4, 2026.
• RedState, "Actual Historian Shames Smithsonian for Revisionist History Displays: 'They're Activists,'" RedState, August 5, 2026.
• Margaret Flavin, "Historian Visits Smithsonian After a Decade, Finds 'A Completely Different Place' That Puts Activism Ahead of History," The Gateway Pundit, August 4, 2026.