Smithsonian Officer Gets Joseph Welch Award

This week’s Joseph Welch Award—given to a person who stands up to tyranny in America, echoing the courage attorney Joseph Welch showed when confronting Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s—has been awarded to Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Robert Reich announced in hisnewsletter.

By reinstating the impeachment placard, Bunch is pushing back against what critics describe as political interference in public history. (Photo: Smithsonian Institution)

The honor comes after the Smithsonian announced it would restore information about Donald Trump’s two impeachments to an exhibit in the National Museum of American History.

The decision reverses an earlier change made in July, when a placard referencing Trump’s impeachments was quietly removed and replaced with one stating that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal”: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.

The Smithsonian clarified its stance on August 2: “The section in question, Impeachment, will be updated in the coming weeks to reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history.”

The change followed months of pressure from the Trump administration.

In March, Trump signed an executive order demanding the removal of “divisive narratives” and “anti-American ideology” from Smithsonian museums, calling for a restoration of the institution as “a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.”

In May, Trump also announced that he had fired Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, calling her “a highly partisan person” and “a strong supporter of DEI,” which he said was “totally inappropriate for her position.”

It remains unclear whether Trump had legal authority to fire Sajet. Smithsonian personnel decisions are not under executive branch jurisdiction and are made by the Smithsonian’s Secretary—not the White House.

Despite pressure, Secretary Bunch appears to be standing firm. By reinstating the impeachment placard, he is pushing back against what critics describe as political interference in public history.

“It’s obvious that Lonnie Bunch is standing up to Trump, trying to protect the integrity of the Smithsonian—even as Trump tries to destroy it,” Reich wrote, “just as he’s destroyed the integrity of so many other institutions (such as, just this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics).”