Inside the behemoth Smithsonian museum network drawing fire from the Trump administration

The Smithsonian Institution, whose museums in Washington, D.C. have come under fire from conservatives and President Donald Trump over what they describe as increasingly left-wing messaging, is the world’s largest museum complex, comprising a sprawling network that spans the country and influences millions of people each year.

Founded in 1846 with funds from the will of British scientist James Smithson, who never visited the United States but left his fortune to establish an institution “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” the Smithsonian steadily grew from a single museum into the world’s largest museum, education and research complex.

Today, the Smithsonian owns or leases nearly 700 facilities across eight states, Washington, D.C., and Panama, encompassing roughly 13.6 million square feet of museums, laboratories, archives, warehouses, research stations and support facilities.

The organization now houses more than 157 million artifacts and specimens, operates 21 museums along with the National Zoo and 14 education and research centers, maintains 21 libraries, and partners with more than 200 affiliate museums and cultural institutions nationwide.

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Visitors see only a fraction of the Smithsonian’s overall collection. Roughly 99% of the Smithsonian’s more than 157 million artifacts and specimens are kept in storage facilities, laboratories and archives, where they are preserved and studied by researchers.

The Smithsonian as a whole welcomes over 30 million in-person visitors each year, while its educational resources and digital platforms reach millions more. The institution operates on an annual budget of more than $1 billion.

The Smithsonian isn’t just a museum operator, it’s effectively a national education and research institution that has a vast reach across school campuses nationwide as it helps shape the educational experience of the nation’s students.

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Through initiatives like the Smithsonian Learning Lab and Smithsonian Science Education Center, the institution provides millions of free lesson plans, classroom activities, virtual field trips and other educational resources used by teachers and students nationwide. It also offers professional development for educators and educational programming that extends well beyond its museums.

On college campuses, the Smithsonian is actively involved in partnering with schools across the country on internships, fellowships, research collaborations and joint academic programs which put the organization in touch with thousands of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students each year.

Earlier this month, the White House released a sweeping report warning about an alleged infiltration of leftist politics inside the Smithsonian, a report an expert told Fox News Digital is an example of the “long march through the institutions” that socialist and communist activists have been pushing in the United States for decades.

“That shift from history to activism is clearly documented in this report. Anthea Hartig, NMAH’s director since 2019, has explicitly stated that she sees history as a ‘prime tool of social justice’ and one of her roles as connecting ‘research and scholarship to activism and advocacy,’” the White House report stated.

Last week, President Trump ordered his administration to install signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History directing visitors to what the White House describes as “accurate” information about the nation’s past, guaranteeing that the controversy over the Smithsonian’s cultural influence will remain a topic of conversation for months to come.