‘Fake historian’ exposed as mastermind behind Trump’s Smithsonian obsession: report
President Donald Trump's moves to discredit the Smithsonian Museum of American History are being driven by a notorious Christian nationalist "fake historian," according to a new report.
According to Judd Legum's Popular Information, Trump's "Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution" executive order, which requires signs be placed outside the museum disclaiming its exhibits as "inaccurate" and anti-American, closely mirrors the claims made by David Barton, a prominent far-right activist who has gained prominence in both GOP and Christian nationalist circles.
Barton, along with his son Tim, head up WallBuilders, a group that promises to “teach US history and how our beginnings were overwhelmingly rooted in Christian ideology” — an easily debunked claim as Christianity and Biblical law are never mentioned anywhere in the Constitution and the document explicitly prohibits an "establishment of religion" by Congress.
"Despite having no degree in history, David Barton calls himself a historian," wrote Legum. "For decades, he has pushed the view that the founding fathers never intended for there to be a separation between church and state. David Barton’s work has been rejected repeatedly by actual historians" — and his 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson "was pulled from the shelves by its publisher after a group of historians from Christian universities accused him of including distortions and false information."
There are a number of similarities, Legum noted, between Barton's work and Trump's new anti-Smithsonian order.
For instance, the order says NMAH is too harsh on slavery, saying that "the words, actions, and ideas of America’s Founders helped spark a worldwide movement that ultimately ended slavery” — a similar distorted claim to the Bartons, who have written that slavery demonstrates "American exceptionalism." Trump's order and the Bartons also push rehabilitation of Christopher Columbus and call him an "American" hero, despite his never having set foot in the United States.
Additionally, noted Legum, "the report ... alleges that the NMAH does not give proper attention to the founding fathers or the Declaration of Independence because it does not want to show that Christianity had an influence on them," a claim the Bartons have been making for years.
To top it all off, the Bartons themselves have hinted they were involved in the creation of the report, as "in a podcast episode from January 6, 2026, the Bartons said that the White House had asked them to help identify problematic Smithsonian exhibits," said the report.
Trump's Smithsonian order has come under heavy criticism, with Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) calling it "one of the dumbest and most bizarre Executive Orders we have ever read."