2026年9月8日16:55:48.742 UTC / 路透社
摘要
- 邦奇预计将于今年年底辞职
- 邦奇自2019年起担任史密森学会秘书，是该机构首位非裔秘书长
- 特朗普政府上周威胁削减联邦机构对史密森学会的支持
芝加哥9月8日路透电——史密森学会秘书周二宣布退休，此前数月来特朗普政府一直指责他领导的国家博物馆呈现出歪曲且分裂的美国历史叙事。
历史学家、策展人兼作家朗尼·邦奇自2019年起担任史密森学会秘书一职。史密森学会旗下拥有21座博物馆和美术馆、21个图书馆、国家动物园以及多个研究和教育中心。
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邦奇在一份声明中表示，他的离职“百感交集，满怀感激”。
“是时候开启我的下一篇章了，这一篇章将让我能够继续维护史密森学会的公信力，并倡导讲述能够阐明和颂扬我们国家复杂历史的重要叙事，”邦奇说道。
他预计将于今年年底辞职。
得知这一消息后，同时担任史密森学会校长的美国首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨表示：“邦奇秘书长在讲述我们国家的故事方面追求卓越。”
邦奇是史密森学会首位非裔负责人，他在牵头打造并开放广受欢迎的史密森学会国家非裔美国人历史与文化博物馆后担任最高职务。该博物馆曾遭到美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的诋毁，长期以来也是保守派的攻击目标。邦奇还曾在该学会的国家美国历史博物馆担任职务。
特朗普政府一直在持续向邦奇和史密森学会施压，批评人士担心这是一场更广泛运动的一部分，目的是从保守派甚至白人至上主义的视角来讲述美国历史。
7月4日美国《独立宣言》发表250周年纪念日当天，白宫在其网站上发布了一份由国内政策委员会撰写的报告，挑起文化战争议题，指责史密森学会的领导层，尤其是国家美国历史博物馆的负责人，从事“反白人行动主义”，倡导“为非法移民提供公民身份”，美化马克思主义，并制作“将生物男性视为女孩或女性”的展览和教育材料。
该报告称，“如果史密森学会的旗舰历史博物馆在每个入口处都贴上这样的标签：‘警告：本博物馆的展览由那些不想让你热爱自己国家的人策划’，那么这将对大多数美国人，尤其是带孩子参观的父母们更有益处。”
报告发布几天后，邦奇向员工发送了一份备忘录，称“尽管总有改进的空间，但这份报告并未公平地描述国家美国历史博物馆的工作和全貌”。
特朗普曾在Truth社交平台上写道：“史密森学会已经失控，那里讨论的一切都是我们国家多么糟糕，奴隶制多么可恶，受压迫者多么一事无成——丝毫没有提及成功、光明和未来。”
上周，特朗普政府在一封信中威胁削减联邦机构对史密森学会的支持。
《纽约时报》周二报道称，邦奇在一次采访中表示，来自白宫的压力导致了他的离职。但他也承认担任该职务的压力。
“说实话，这段时间压力很大，”他告诉《泰晤士报》。“到了某个节点，我希望早上醒来时不用再盯着手机看了。”
在史密森学会旗舰杂志为美国建国250周年发表的一篇随笔中，邦奇毫不避讳地表达了特朗普曾引发争议的立场，包括赞扬移民以及被奴役抵达者及其后代对国家的贡献。他谈及后两者时表示，他们在美国看到了“最终成为自由之地的潜力”。
“我们必须如实讲述非凡者和平凡者的历史，无论是辉煌时刻还是耻辱时刻，”邦奇在随笔中补充道。“对我们的过去进行不完整的叙述，抹平其棱角，会阻碍国家打造更美好的共同未来的能力。”
特朗普在2025年5月宣布解雇史密森学会国家肖像画廊首位女性主任金·萨耶特，指责她支持多元化、公平性和包容性举措。当时尚不清楚特朗普是否有合法权限解雇她。萨耶特于次月辞职。
特朗普在3月签署一项行政命令，指示担任史密森学会摄政委员会成员的副总统JD·万斯，从史密森学会中清除“不当、分裂或反美国的意识形态”。该命令特别点名了国家非裔美国人历史与文化博物馆——邦奇于2005年开始筹备该博物馆，并于2016年开放，实现了一个百年夙愿。
保守派将带有民族视角的博物馆描述为本质上具有分裂性。
邦奇在一本关于打造这座非裔美国人历史博物馆的回忆录中表示，他的目标是打造一座关于非裔美国人的博物馆，帮助所有美国人认识到，他们拥有一段尽管充满波折但共同的历史，以及对更美好未来的共同希望。
在书中，他描述了2017年初特朗普参观博物馆的经历。邦奇写道，在参观前，这位在博物馆开放几周前刚刚当选的总统的助手们表示担心，特朗普当时心情不好，不想看任何“令人不快”的内容。邦奇从博物馆关于奴隶制的展览开始了这次参观。
唐娜·布莱森、比安卡·弗劳尔斯 报道；马克·波特 编辑
Smithsonian chief Lonnie Bunch announces departure
2026-09-08T16:55:48.742Z / Reuters
Summary
- Bunch is expected to step down by end of the year
- Bunch has led Smithsonian since 2019 as institution’s first Black secretary
- Trump administration last week threatened to cut federal agencies’ support for Smithsonian
CHICAGO, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The secretary of the Smithsonian Institution announced on Tuesday that he was retiring after months of accusations from the Trump administration that the national museums he led portrayed a skewed and divisive version of the U.S.
Historian, curator and author Lonnie Bunch has led the Smithsonian as its secretary since 2019. The Smithsonian has 21 museums and galleries, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, and a number of research and education centers.
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Bunch said in a statement that his departure comes with “mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude.”
“It is time for my next chapter, a chapter that will allow me to continue to protect the integrity of the Smithsonian and to champion the importance of a history that illuminates and celebrates the complex story of our nation,” Bunch said.
He is expected to step down by the end of the year.
After receiving the news, Chief Justice John Roberts, who also serves as the Smithsonian’s chancellor, said, “Secretary Bunch has pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story.”
Bunch, the Smithsonian’s first Black leader, took the top role after developing and opening the Smithsonian’s popular National Museum of African American History and Culture, which has been vilified by U.S. President Donald Trump and long targeted by conservatives. Bunch also held positions at the institution’s National Museum of American History.
The Trump administration had been steadily increasing pressure on Bunch and the Smithsonian in what critics fear is part of a broader campaign to tell America’s story from a conservative and even white supremacist point of view.
On July 4, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the White House posted on its website a report by its Domestic Policy Council that evokes culture war issues in accusing Smithsonian leaders, particularly those at its National Museum of American History, of engaging in “anti-white activism,” advocating for “citizenship for illegal aliens,” lionizing Marxists and producing exhibitions and educational materials that “treat biological males as girls or women.”
The report suggests that “it would benefit most Americans, especially parents bringing their children for a tour, if the Smithsonian’s flagship history museum had a label at every entrance that reads: ‘Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.’”
Bunch sent a memo to his staff a few days after the report was released saying that “while there will always be room for improvement, this report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.”
Trump has written on Truth Social that the “Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
In a letter last week, the Trump administration threatened to cut federal agencies’ support for the Smithsonian.
The New York Times said on Tuesday that Bunch said in an interview that the pressure from the White House had led to his departure. But he acknowledged the strain of the role.
“I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” he told the Times. “And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”
In an essay marking the 250th anniversary in the Smithsonian Institution’s flagship magazine, Bunch did not shy from stances that Trump has made controversial, including lauding the contributions to the nation made by immigrants and by those who arrived enslaved and their descendants, saying of the latter two that they saw in the U.S. “the potential to eventually become the land of freedom.”
“We must tell the unvarnished histories of the extraordinary and the ordinary, the moments of glory and infamy alike,” Bunch added in the essay. “An incomplete telling of our past, with rough edges smoothed, inhibits the country’s ability to forge a better shared future.”
Trump announced in May of 2025 that he was firing Kim Sajet, the first woman to direct the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, accusing her of supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. It was unclear whether Trump had the legal authority to fire her. Sajet resigned the next month.
Trump signed an executive order in March directing Vice President JD Vance, who sits on the Smithsonian’s board of regents, to remove “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution. The order singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which Bunch began developing in 2005 and opened in 2016, realizing a century-old goal.
Conservatives have depicted museums with an ethnic lens as inherently divisive.
Bunch said in a memoir about developing the African American history museum that his goal was a museum about African Americans that helped all Americans understand that they had a shared if fraught history and common hopes for a better future.
In the book he described giving a tour of the museum to Trump in early 2017. Bunch wrote that ahead of the visit, aides to the president, who had been elected just weeks before the museum opened, expressed concern that he was in a bad mood and did not want to see anything “difficult.” Bunch started the tour in the museum’s exhibit on slavery.
Reporting by Donna Bryson and Bianca Flowers; Editing by Mark Porter
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