Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch Faces Political Pressure Amid Trump’s Cultural Offensive

Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is confronting the most pointed political challenge of his tenure. On the heels of a recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump that accused the Smithsonian of promoting divisive ideologies and called for an end to exhibitions and programs that “degrade shared American values” or “divide Americans by race,&rdq