When the Smithsonian smeared the US military in 1995, Congress fired the museum director.
The Smithsonian tried it again – and this time the inspector general found exactly where the money went.
What the Smithsonian's exhibit actually called the US military is the reason House Republicans just issued a two-week ultimatum.
How the Smithsonian's Domicide Exhibit Got Charged to Women's History Funds
The exhibit was supposed to be about New York City architecture.
A straightforward proposal – showcase 10 NYC buildings at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum as part of an exhibition called the Making Home Design Triennial.
Then the curator handed the project to Mona Chalabi – a far-left Iraqi-British journalist with no military background and a documented record of anti-Israel advocacy.
Chalabi had originally pitched a work on US housing and inequality before pivoting to reconstruct three homes destroyed by American-made weapons in Iraq, Syria, and Gaza.
The exhibit's central argument was explicit: America's military doctrine amounts to "domicide" – the deliberate and massive destruction of homes to intentionally cause human suffering.
That exhibit ran for nine months – from November 2024 through August 2025 – on the taxpayer's dime.
The Smithsonian's inspector general investigated and found something more outrageous than the propaganda itself.
The $36,500 used to fund the exhibit came directly from the American Women's History Initiative Pool – federal dollars earmarked specifically to "research, share, and amplify the histories of American women."
Nothing in the exhibit had anything to do with American women.
Smithsonian bureaucrats quietly redirected women's history funds to produce an anti-military hit piece – and nobody said a word until the inspector general started asking questions.
Tim Burchett Has Given the Woke Smithsonian Two Weeks and a Billion-Dollar Warning
On October 28, Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Brian Jack of Georgia sent Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III a three-page letter demanding extensive records about the exhibit and how it bypassed every oversight mechanism the institution has.
The deadline is November 11.
Burchett and Jack documented how the exhibit framed American military doctrine – and even the nation's founding principles – as embodying domicide: "the massive and deliberate destruction of homes in order to cause human suffering."
Calling American airstrikes against ISIS "deliberate human suffering" isn't scholarship – it's a political argument with a federal budget line.
House Republicans are particularly focused on Smithsonian Directive 603 – internal policy requiring rigorous review of any exhibit likely to generate public controversy.
The inspector general concluded Cooper Hewitt failed to implement it.
That failure didn't happen by accident – somebody bypassed the process to get this propaganda on the floor.
The Smithsonian defended its commitment to "accuracy and relevance to the public" and warned against discouraging "scholarly inquiry."
Scholarly inquiry funded with stolen women's history money.
At a July congressional hearing, Burchett told lawmakers the Smithsonian has become "infected by a woke ideology" that now shows up in public displays and planning documents across the institution.
Lawmakers are now weighing cuts to the Smithsonian's $1.1 billion annual budget – roughly two-thirds of the institution's total funding – unless serious reforms are implemented.
The Smithsonian ran this exact playbook in 1995 – they designed an Enola Gay exhibit to make America feel guilty about ending World War II, Congress threatened the budget, and the museum director resigned inside six months.
The Smithsonian spent the next thirty years running the same game more quietly – an exhibit speculating Benjamin Franklin shocked slaves in electrical experiments, another celebrating Anthony Fauci as an "infectious disease superstar" without a single critical word, and now this.
Trump has already signed an executive order targeting Smithsonian exhibits that "twist and disparage American history." Secretary Bunch is leaving at the end of 2026, and the records demand lands squarely inside that leadership transition.
The SD 603 review process exists to catch exhibits like this before they open to the public. Somebody at Cooper Hewitt made a conscious decision to bypass it, and the November 11 records demand is designed to find out exactly who.
Burchett chairs the relevant subcommittee and controls the budget conversation – the same leverage that ended the Enola Gay exhibit.
Whoever walks into Lonnie Bunch's office in January inherits an active congressional investigation and a billion-dollar budget already on the chopping block.
Sources:
- AG News Staff, "House GOP Demands Smithsonian Docs After Exhibit Ties US Military Doctrine to 'Domicide,'" American Greatness, November 1, 2026.
- Emily Mangiaracina, "IG Report Reveals $36K Smithsonian Exhibit Spread Hamas Propaganda About US Blowing Up Gazan Homes," The Federalist, July 8, 2026.
- John Solomon, "Un-American History? House Probes Smithsonian Exhibit Suggesting US Military Engaged in 'Domicide,'" Just the News, October 28, 2026.
- John Solomon, "Concerns About Smithsonian's 'Radical,' Superficial View of U.S. History Started Long Before Trump," Just the News, October 28, 2026.
- "Smithsonian Funding Threatened by House GOP Over 'Woke' Exhibits," Fox News, 2026.
