Ben Franklin Exhibit at the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Director Said She Has Zero Regrets After Getting Caught Smearing Ben Franklin With No Proof

The Smithsonian already stood accused of turning America's history museum into a woke propaganda machine.Then one exhibit about Ben Franklin walked into a House hearing and detonated everything.

What the Smithsonian said about him left even the room speechless. A Heritage Foundation researcher stood in front of the House Oversight Committee and pulled the pin. He told lawmakers about a Smithsonian display called The Electric Dr. Franklin.

The exhibit ran at the National Museum of American History from 2021 to 2025. Its subtitle asked visitors to consider "Enslaved People in Franklin's Research." The museum's own text admits it has no proof this ever happened.

"Indentured servants and enslaved people in his household could also have been used," the exhibit states, before admitting the museum may never know if that's true. That is not history. That is a smear dressed up in a museum placard.

Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez asked lawmakers why anyone would smear a Founding Father like Franklin over something so bizarre and unprovable.

Franklin spent his final years as president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. He personally petitioned Congress to end slavery in America.

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Smithsonian's National Museum

Brandon Gill 'absolutely wrecks woke leftist lunatic' leading 'extreme political activism' at Smithsonian

'Your organization has been promoting politeness as a defining characteristic of white supremacy culture. Ma'am, are you a white supremacist?'

The director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History was intensely grilled Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who asked outright if she were a white supremacist based on the museum's own policies.

The congressional hearing comes in the wake of a scathing 162-page report from the White House on July 4 accusing the Smithsonian Institution of engaging in "extreme political activism" and presenting "a radical view of American history."

The White House report on the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Institution going Woke

White House tears into ‘extreme political activism’ at National Museum of American History

The White House lashed out against the Smithsonian Institution’s leadership Monday, accusing the network that runs 21 museums of “extreme political activism” and failing to celebrate America.

A new White House report accuses leaders of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History of embracing "extreme political activism" and using the nation's flagship history museum to advance what the report describes as an ideological agenda.

The 162-page report, released on July 4 by the White House Domestic Policy Council, is part of the Trump administration’s ongoing review of the Smithsonian. It is the latest move in the Trump administration’s broader push to scrutinize Smithsonian exhibits and programming that federal officials view as overly ideological or "woke."

The report argues that museum leaders have moved the institution away from historical scholarship and toward social justice advocacy, saying the museum now presents American history largely through themes of racism, oppression and inequality.

“This ideological capture has moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country,” the report states.

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The U.S. government heavily funds the Smithsonian Institution, providing about two-thirds of its annual budget. Federal appropriations—approved by Congress—account for more than $1 billion each year, while the remaining third comes from private donations, endowments, and retail revenue.