Step one: Make signs. Step two: Create an entire Trump wing dedicated to gold-framed AI-generated images of himself.

On Tuesday, The Atlantic published a report that the Trump administration is planning to shell out an estimated $84,000 so that the National Park Service can install roughly a dozen temporary signs outside the Smithsonian.

Although it’s unclear what the signs will say, they will accuse the institution of “ideological bias.” A person familiar with the plans, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on record, told the outlet that whoever is writing the text “remains a mystery.”

The information was revealed in a Sept. 3 letter The Atlantic’s Kelsey Ables obtained from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who sought details about the initiative after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in July that called for the signs to be hung.

Trump doesn’t have the authority to swiftly fire Smithsonian leadership or demand changes to their exhibits, so his executive order only affects the sidewalks outside of the institution, which are maintained by the National Park Service.

Burgum reportedly says in his letter that the signs have not yet been finalized, but offers a general vibe of their messaging by saying they will provide visitors with “important context about the exhibits they are about to encounter and the personal viewpoints that the curators of the exhibits are seeking to advance.”

The letter also takes aim at exhibitions and material that relates to groups the Trump administration often attacks, like undocumented immigrants and transgender Americans, according to Ables.

The interior secretary justified the signs’ necessity by echoing a 162-page report on the museum released by the White House that said the museum promotes “ideologies that distract from a coherent and accurate presentation of America’s story.”

“This may be the first instance in which executive branch intervention of this nature has become Necessary,” Burgum reportedly wrote.

According to Ables’ descriptions of Burgum’s letter, he also gets pretty salty about museum director Anthea Hartig and outgoing Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, citing their previous remarks about race and the presentation of American history.

“A commitment to public transparency means that visitors should be informed about Director Hartig’s and other Smithsonian leaders’ history of racial focus,” Burgum wrote, per The Atlantic.

He added that visitors should know about “Secretary Lonnie Bunch’s history of invidious discrimination and anti-white animus,” pointing to a 2,000-word essay in which Bunch discussed racial discrimination within the museum profession.

HuffPost reached out to the Department of the Interior for comment but did not get an immediate response.

In August 2025, Trump was a bit more blunt about his beef with the Smithsonian in a post on Truth Social.

“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,” he wrote.

In another Truth Social post published earlier this month, Trump also demanded that the Smithsonian install the 11-foot statue of Washington featured at the recent Freedom 250 IndyCar race in the museum’s Flag Hall until Feb. 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.

He also wants a 30-foot statue of Washington to replace the current “Infinity” sculpture by New York artist Jose de Rivera.

Read the full report over at The Atlantic.

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