Amid Trump’s Threats, a Potential Home for Smithsonian Latino Museum
The Smithsonian board will reportedly vote on housing the fledgling institution in the recently reopened Arts & Industries Building — a move that would allow it to bypass Congressional approval.
The Smithsonian Institution's board will meet next Monday, August 31, to vote on housing the National Museum of the American Latino (NMAL) in the Smithsonian's recently reopened Arts & Industries Building, as reported in the Washington Examiner and confirmed by the New York Times. The move would allow the fledgling museum to move forward in the face of the Trump administration's threats to defund the project altogether.
Establishing the NMAL in the historic Arts & Industries Building would allow the Smithsonian to bypass congressional approval, which was an initial requirement under the original plan to build out a new space for the museum on or near the National Mall, because those parcels of land fall under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Founded in 2020, the NMAL has been operating out of a dedicated gallery within the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History since 2022.
Billed as a “permanent home to honor the stories, contributions, and impact of Latinos in the United States,” the NMAL has been repeatedly highlighted throughout the Trump administration's targeted attacks against the Smithsonian's “woke” ideologies and programming. An unnamed source told the Times that considering how things are going right now, the NMAL decided that gambling on congressional approval for a site for a brand-new building wasn't worth the risk.
