Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform grilled National Museum of American History (NMAH) Director Anthea Hartig during a congressional hearing on allegations outlined in the White House’s 162-page July report that accused the Smithsonian Institution (SI) of promoting “extreme political activism.” As one would expect, the hearing rapidly devolved into explosive statements tumbling out of the mouths of the Republican committee members before Hartig could answer a majority of the questions — each more accusatory and absurd than the last.
The Trump administration’s fixation on the Smithsonian has spiraled from critiquing its “woke” narrative to threatening the majority of the institution’s funding unless it handed over the didactics, staff information, and planned programming from each museum and research center for review. Similar to how Hartig was mentioned extensively in the 162-page report, President Trump himself previously took direct aim at former National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet, whom he claimed to have fired in 2025 because she prioritized diversifying programming and collection acquisitions.
Hartig, who has led the NMAH since 2019 as the museum’s first woman director, was asked no less than the following:
- Are you sexualizing children?
- Do you believe men can become women?
- What is a woman?
- When was your gender revealed to you?
- Do you think it’s the goal of the SI to promote White supremacy culture?
- Is Mickey Mouse racist?
- Is it important to be polite?
- What is “Latina power?”
- Do you think that it’s appropriate for the SI to sell Latina power paraphernalia?
- What about the tens of millions of aborted babies killed in America — where is the justice and compassion for them?
That’s not all of it, but it certainly paints a picture of what Hartig and her affiliates were facing during the July 21 questioning. While it’s highly recommended to watch the hearing in its entirety to experience the full inflection and sincerity behind each of the above queries, we have decided to categorize them by tier list on the basis of impact.
For those unfamiliar with this format, S-tier essentially means perfect, while A-tier takes it down a notch to just amazing. Texas Republican Congressman Brandon Gill had some of the most memorable lines with the Mickey Mouse line of questioning, as well as his investigation into Latina power, the latter of which Hartig described as “the forces derived from being a Latina.” Both inquiries might honestly have the staying power of Mitt Romney’s historic “binders full of women.”
South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace also made history during the hearing after incredulously noting that her staff informed her that “this little trinket around the penis” of a metal and rubber harness in the museum’s collection is, in fact, “BDSM.” She also repeatedly questioned Hartig on what a woman is, but not before accusing her of sexualizing children.
On that note, subcommittee chairman and Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett also asked Hartig about which genitalia she thinks little girls have, which got put in C-tier for creepiness, but also because it’s just beating a dead horse. Same goes for Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert’s apparently irrelevant fixation on NMAH’s lack of historical representation for “tens of millions of aborted babies who were killed in America,” but that got sorted into the F-tier because it’s clearly inconsistent with the far-right’s challenging of birthright citizenship … Moving on!
Though she was evidently gobsmacked, Hartig kept her cool throughout the questioning, so much so that she didn’t end up making it onto the chart since she didn’t say anything out of pocket and wouldn’t talk back to anybody. However, there were moments of ☆ restored sanity ☆ peppered throughout the droning about how cross-dressing men are a form of erasure, the proper way to display Abraham Lincoln’s top hat and Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk, and why it shouldn’t be complicated to love America.
Cutting through the chaos, New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stansbury, the subcommittee’s ranking member, aptly pointed out that Jefferson’s desk was indeed on display for a special semiquincentennial exhibition curated by SI Secretary Lonnie Bunch II. Virginia Democrat James Walkinshaw called out the Trump administration’s own erasure of history through the deletion of African-American baseball player and WWII veteran Jackie Robinson’s historical profile from the Defense Department’s website, alongside those of Tuskeegee Airmen and Navajo code talkers, due to the executive order to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives on a federal level.
Before the battle of wits even started, Hartig made one very succinct argument for the NMAH’s direction: “Patriotism. Not instructed, but inspired.”
But, as it’s been demonstrated time and time again, patriotism has been whittled down to a joke.
