Religious-right activist Jim Garlow and his wife Rosemary devoted Wednesday’s episode of their Well Versed World podcast to promoting the ongoing attack by the Trump White House and its right-wing allies on the Smithsonian Institution. Garlow is a prominent figure in the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation, which seeks to take “dominion” over every sphere of influence in society.
Part of the broader MAGA effort to replace “woke ideology” with a censored, sanitized, “patriotic” version of American history, the demonization of Smithsonian leaders has included a 2025 Trump executive order, a July 4 report slamming the National Museum of American History—which was panned by historians—and two recent hearings by oversight committees in the House of Representatives.
Joining the Garlows was Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who took part in a recent hearing that featured testimony from the Dr. Anthea Hartig, director of the American History museum, and renowned Yale University historian David Blight, who warned against “statist history,” and two right-wing activists, including the Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzales. On the podcast, Jim Garlow called Hartig “very sick, very demented, very evil.”
Loudermilk said he is working with the White House to replace members of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, who have the power to fire museum directors.
Loudermilk complained that the museums want to maintain independence while taking taxpayer money:
Let’s look at it this way. If the Smithsonian wants to have their own independence, free from any government oversight or influence, well, they need to go build their own buildings, because they’re in federal buildings on the National Mall that’s run by the U.S. Park Service. Right? So they need to go find another place to have their museums.
And they are appropriated through Congress. Now, they do receive a lot of private donations, but they are also appropriated by Congress, so, if you want your independence, then, here we go. We can save a whole lot of money and pull your funding.
And, well then let’s just let David Barton or Glenn Beck or some of these others obtain some of the artifacts that you have, I mean they have a lot of them too, and let’s just let those guys run our national museums.
That is only a half-serious comment by me, but what I’m trying to illustrate is they want their cake and eat it too, right? You can’t have one or the other. You can’t have independence and want the taxpayers to fund what you’re doing and then you ignore what the taxpayers want.
Loudermilk had praise for the Air and Space Museum’s exhibit on World War II aviation, contrasting its celebration of America’s mission in that war with the message he said is being given at the American history museum:
They’re doing whatever they can to make America look as an evil, oppressive nation, when our entire history has been about freedom, it’s been about liberty, not only for ourselves, but for people around the world.
Loudermilk complained repeatedly about a museum exhibit about drag shows. He said it is important for Congress to take “the next step” beyond holding hearings and “take action.” Having Trump leading the charge makes that more likely, he said:
We took on the Library of Congress. The president fired the previous librarian, and I was there at a dinner just on Tuesday night about the Declaration and they’re telling the whole story…They’re talking about prayer, They’re talking about faith. This is at the Library of Congress. I never thought I’d see that happen.
Garlow prayed that God would bring divine wisdom and discernment to Loudermilk’s efforts, asking “that your spirit communes with his spirit and shows him precisely the strategy to bring correction to the evil in what should be institutions affirming good and holy and righteous things.”
Also joining the Garlows on the podcast was Matthew Monfore, a young missionary and MAGA activist who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for a seat in the South Dakota legislature in 2024. He cited his background in “American Indian missions” as he called for the National Museum of the American Indian to be shut down completely:
The American Indian Museum itself needs to be totally shut down. It’s that bad …The minority museums in DC are basically, like, turned into Holocaust Museums to make America look like evil Nazis, basically.