In the same spirit as his assault on America’s research institutions, President Trump is gunning for — of all things — our libraries and museums. You only need to read his remarks on the Smithsonian Institution to grasp which way the wind is blowing: “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL,” he posted on social media in August, “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.”
It’s not something most civilians think about often, but many museums and libraries rely on funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that provides grants to public institutions around the country. Now, recipients of that funding are — like our universities — being put to the ideological purity test.
On the South Fork, museums that have received I.M.L.S. money in recent years have included the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, to support Access Parrish, a “gallery experience and art-making program that serves people with special needs,” including incarcerated women and victims of domestic violence, according to reporting in The Star in 2023; the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton, which has received funding for Estrellas de Lectura/Reading Stars, a reading mentorship program, and Play/Practice, an educational initiative for low-income preschoolers; and Preservation Long Island, for its Inspire! initiative, which, among many other things, helped the Custom House in Sag Harbor care for its collections.
Public libraries do not receive I.M.L.S. money directly but via the agency’s grants to states: The New York State Library has funneled “more than $645,000 to John Jermain, $510,000 to Montauk, and $425,000 to East Hampton” Library over the last decade, according to reporting in The Star.
A story out this week from ProPublica lays out the Trump administration’s intentions to bring unruly librarians and curators under control: “Last March, Trump attempted to eliminate the agency through an executive order and fired director Cyndee Landrum, a career library professional.” Ms. Landrum was replaced with Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith E. Sonderling, who “does not appear to have prior professional experience in museums or libraries.” I.M.L.S.’s new mission was outlined in a press release in which Mr. Sonderling wrote, “We will revitalize I.M.L.S. and restore focus on patriotism.” Soon, the familiar agency purge began: “Ten days later, he put nearly all of the agency’s 75 employees on administrative leave, fired the board, and rescinded some previously awarded grants.”
The agency is now accepting applications for grants ranging from $5,000 to $1 million. Which libraries and museums will get those grants will hinge on exactly how “patriotic” their attitude is. Will accepting the grant money put them in line for federal interference in programming and hiring, as has played out at university campuses? Time will tell.
One alarmed expert quoted in the ProPublica reporting is Crosby Kemper III, “a lifelong conservative Republican appointed by Trump to lead the agency in 2019 who stayed on into President Joe Biden’s term.” Mr. Kemper is no fan of diversity, equity, and inclusion, but he has expressed shock at what has happened at I.M.L.S. “All these Trump executive orders — and I mean all of them — are just extensions of his own animus towards anybody who disagrees with him and his outsized ego,” said Mr. Kemper, who used the word “horrific” to describe the new grant guidelines. “It’s clear the administration wants a whitewashed story, if you’ll pardon the pun there. And that’s wrong.”
It seems obvious that the authors of this latest gross example of authoritarian control over free thought don’t have a solid grasp of 20th-century history. Perhaps Mr. Sonderling and Mr. Trump didn’t spend enough time at libraries and museums when they were students.