‘A very tough moment’: how Trump has put museums in jeopardy

‘Museums are focused on their mission and the public trust and they have been since the 1880s. They are not used to having to think about one individual who’s the president’ … a new portrait of Donald Trump at the Smithsonian in Washington. Photograph: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

From Times Square to the Washington Monument, America saw in the new year with a bigger bang than usual, celebrating the fact that 2026 marks the nation’s 250th birthday. Yet as the US looks back, precious repositories of the nation’s history are facing an uncertain future.

Museum attendances are down. Budgets are precarious. Cuts in federal funding are taking their toll. And Donald Trump’s culture wars are spreading fear, intimidation and self-censorship among some directors and donors.