Lonnie Bunch III is stepping down from his role as the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution before the end of 2026, he announced Tuesday.
Bunch, 73, is the first black leader of the museum and education institution based in Washington and began his role in June 2019. He has sparred with President Donald Trump’s second administration throughout the past two years of his tenure, as Trump has aimed to root out “divisive, race-centered ideology” displays at the institution’s museums.
Bunch said he decided to retire while on an August vacation and that the decision had “nothing” to do with the Trump administration, according to the Wall Street Journal.
His resignation comes weeks after the Department of Interior sent an Aug. 28 letter to the Smithsonian, threatening to cut off its funding if the institution did not make changes to its programming and culture.
“Smithsonian leadership’s culture of ideological activism has not only corrupted the Institution but has spread across the country and corrupted the American Alliance for Museums – the primary organization and accrediting body for the museum profession – among others. Federal agencies with relevant authorities therefore have a duty to investigate and address these unlawful practices, both at the Smithsonian and elsewhere,” Interior Secretary Burgum wrote in the letter.
The Interior Department’s August letter also followed a White House report from July that cast the Smithsonian leadership as a group that has “explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”
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Bunch told the outlet that he plans to soon rebuttal a White House assessment on the Smithsonian in a response that will “demonstrate that much of what was in the White House report was a mischaracterization of the Smithsonian and of the National Museum of American History.”
He told the outlet that he saw it as time to step down as he originally sought to serve just five years as Secretary, but vowed to “protect the importance of doing nuanced, complicated history.”
As secretary, Bunch oversees the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, and research and education centers. He entered the role of secretary after serving as the institution’s director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a role he had served in since July 2005.
As director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Bunch oversaw the creation of the 400,000-square-foot physical museum on the National Mall. As the institution’s Secretary, Bunch also oversaw the opening of the National Museum of the American Latino and the creation of the American Women’s History Museum.