Snapshot · The Bulwark Podcast
Lonnie Bunch is the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the first Black person to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Where this was said
At 27:53 · chapter starts 27:00
Lonnie Bunch built the National Museum of African American History and Culture from nothing — no collection, no staff, no building, no site — over more than a decade, turning it into one of the most popular museums in the country. Now, as Secretary of the Smithsonian, he is the first historian and first Black person to hold that role, and he is using that singular position to defend the institution from an administration that has accused it of talking too much about slavery and being too woke. Smith describes Bunch as 'the Beyoncé of museums,' with people following him through hotel lobbies seeking selfies and autographs at conferences [1] — Clint Smith "Lonnie Bunch is the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the first Black Secretary of the S…" 27:00 . Trump has attacked the Smithsonian loudly and repeatedly but has never directly named Bunch — and Smith speculates that Trump genuinely likes him. The revealing anecdote is Bunch's lunch with Trump: Bunch prepared himself for termination, certain that Trump would use the meeting to dismantle the institution. Instead, Trump spent the meal asking Bunch whether he should use gold or silver to ornament his new ballroom and discussing curtains. Miller's sardonic observation — 'if only Fred had hugged him more, he could have been a gay theater queen, an interior designer' — captures the absurdity of a president whose aesthetic preoccupations seem to coexist with, and sometimes overwhelm, his ideological ones.
Lonnie Bunch is the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the first Black Secretary of the Smithsonian. Trump has repeatedly attacked the institution, but has never directly named Bunch — and when they met for lunch, Trump skipped the culture war and spent the time asking Bunch about chandeliers. Bunch is navigating the impossible: protecting the institution he built without provoking the president who could destroy it.
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