Congresswoman Made Smithsonian Director Explain a Museum Exhibit Called a Crotch Harness

Rep. Mary Miller asked the director of the National Museum of American History what a "crotch harness" was.

That exhibit is on display right now inside a museum built to celebrate America's Founders.

And Anthea Hartig had no good answer for why it's there.

White House 'Saving America's Story' Report Found No Smithsonian Exhibit Honoring Washington or Jefferson

Trump's White House Domestic Policy Council spent 16 months investigating the Smithsonian.

They walked the floors, reviewed the exhibits, interviewed the curators, and read the planning documents.

The result was a 162-page report titled "Saving America's Story" – released on July 4, of all days – concluding that the National Museum of American History has undergone "ideological capture."

Here's what investigators found inside the museum that gets over $1 billion a year in taxpayer funding.

No major exhibit dedicated to George Washington.

No exhibit on Thomas Jefferson.

No exhibit on the Continental Congress, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, or Washington's crossing of the Delaware.

Instead, investigators catalogued exhibits built around gender-fluidity education aimed at teenagers, formal partnerships with groups pushing to abolish ICE and grant citizenship to illegal immigrants, and displays tied to organizations that campaign against the Second Amendment.

A staff member is on record believing things will be better when this nation "exists in hindsight."

And Columbus – one of history's most consequential explorers – described as a "murderer," "slaver," "killer," and "thief" who committed genocide.

This is what the left has done with the museum your grandparents trusted to tell America's story.

Anthea Hartig Faced Congress Twice Over Smithsonian's 'Ideological Capture' and Answered Almost Nothing

On July 21, Hartig was hauled before the House DOGE subcommittee.

Rep. Tim Burchett looked her in the eye and asked: "Dr. Hartig, are you America first? Do you love America?"

She didn't give a straight answer.

The next day, she was back before the House Administration Committee – a second consecutive day of hearings – where Rep. Miller walked through the exhibit featuring the crotch harness and asked her to explain it to American taxpayers.

Hartig's defense was procedural – she insisted the museum "does not take sides in America's political debates."

Rep. Brandon Gill said it plainly: Hartig needs to go.

Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez told Congress the truth about what's really happening at the Smithsonian: "This is deeply Marxist and Gramscian."

He's right.

These people aren't teaching history – they're trying to end America as you know it.

Trump's Second Executive Order Targets Smithsonian Over Woke Exhibits – And It Was Long Overdue

Trump didn't just release a report.

He signed a second executive order on July 24 directing the Interior Department, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration to use every available authority to force the Smithsonian to fix what the report documented.

He ordered the National Park Service to install warning signs outside the National Museum of American History – signs that direct visitors to the White House report and explain exactly what's wrong with what they're about to see inside.

That's a president who means it.

The left has been running this playbook for decades – not just at the Smithsonian, but at every federally funded cultural institution they could capture.

They did it slowly, quietly, one curator hire at a time, one exhibit reframe at a time, until America's flagship history museum bore no resemblance to the one that opened its doors generations ago.

The America 250 celebration – the 250th anniversary of your country's founding – came and went this year with no Flag Day ceremony at the Smithsonian, no Independence Day programming, and a flagship exhibit that the White House said simply repackaged old displays instead of honoring the Founders who risked execution to declare independence.

Your tax dollars funded that insult.

Here's what matters now: the Smithsonian gets over a billion dollars a year from American taxpayers.

Trump is holding that over their heads – and he should.

Hartig and Secretary Lonnie Bunch turned the world's largest museum complex into a weapon against the country it was built to honor.

If they won't fix it, defund it.

America's story deserves better than a Marxist rewrite – and for the first time in years, a president is willing to say so out loud.

Sources:

• Amanda Macias, "Trump v. Smithsonian: A Timeline of How the White House Fight Over 'Woke' History Unfolded," Fox News, August 3, 2026.
• "Hearing Wrap Up: Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Radical Agenda to Reshape the Past," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 21, 2026.
• "Smithsonian Director Grilled Over Sexually Explicit Exhibits," Daily Signal, July 22, 2026.
• Rep. Brandon Gill interview, "Rep. Brandon Gill Backs Trump Executive Order, Calls to 'Clean House' at the Smithsonian," Fox News, July 2026.
• Wendi Strauch Mahoney, "Smithsonian Natural History Museum Has Gone Woke," American Thinker, July 8, 2026.
• Jerry Newcombe, "The Battle Over History and the Smithsonian," Townhall, August 1, 2026.
• "Revisionist Museum of American History," VCY.org, August 6, 2026.
• "White House Report Exposes Smithsonian's War on American History," AMAC, July 2026.