Sept. 8 (UPI) — Lonnie G. Bunch III, the leader of the Smithsonian Institution, announced Tuesday that he plans to step down at the end of the year, a move that comes in the midst of escalating criticism and attacks on the institution by U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration.
Bunch, 73, has held the role of Smithsonian secretary for seven years. He said the pressure and criticism from Trump had nothing to do with his decision.
“It was really just saying, now’s the time,” he told The New York Times. “I’m a fighter.”
He did acknowledge that the job has been stressful, “and at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”
Trump has criticized the Smithsonian, particularly the National Museum of American history, for how it presents U.S. history, saying it showcases “improper ideology” and “extreme political activism.”
Bunch, a historian, founded the institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture prior to becoming its first Black leader. He told The Washington Post that he’d been considering retirement for about a year.
“For, I don’t know, 45 years, work has taken precedence over family, and I just said at 73, enough’s enough,” he said. “There’s never a good time, but I think the key is I want to be able to have as many years as I can with the family and the grandkids.”
Bunch first joined the Smithsonian in 1978 and has worked at the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History and in other roles. He also worked at the California African American Museum and as president of the Chicago Historical Society. In 2005, he returned to the Smithsonian to work on the African American history museum, which opened in 2016.
John Roberts Jr., chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and head of the Smithsonian’s governing Board of Regents, said in a statement that Bunch had “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story” and that the institution “benefited greatly from his wisdom, vision and leadership.”
The Board of Regents will be responsible for choosing Bunch’s successor. It also includes six members of Congress, nine private citizens appointed by Congress and Vice President JD Vance. Congress has not yet named three successors to three of the citizen positions that recently expired.
Bunch told The Post that he will continue to stand up for the Smithsonian and its independence for as long as he can.
“We’re at a time when people are challenging that independence, but I feel very strongly that it is as independent as we were before, and that I will continue to fight — for as long as I’m in this chair – for the independence of the Smithsonian,” he said.
In a scathing report released July 4, the Trump administration accused the institution of anti-white bias and criticized exhibits that it said refuse “to affirm the exceptional courage of the American people”and displays that connect the Founding Fathers – many of whom were slave owners– with slavery.
The report also said the museum endorses illegal immigration, advocates for transgender issues and focuses on Christianity “as an instrument of conquest, exclusion or cultural erasure.”
Later in July, Trump ordered the facility to post signs warning visitors about what he called “ideological” views on social justice and other topics. The administration has also threatened the institution’s funding.
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