Trump Slashes Museum and Library Funding

News D.C. Erases Black Lives Matter Mural Under Threat of Funding Cuts Elaine YJ Zheng

U.S. President Donald Trump signed yet another executive order on Friday targeting seven government agencies devoted to art, information management, and community support.

Seven agencies have a week to report on the necessity of their functions before the axe drops, with Trump’s team hoping to streamline government functions and cut spending.

This time it’s areas like the arts in the crosshairs, with the list including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)—the federal body in charge of distributing museum and library funding.

The order demands all entities submit a report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget within seven days detailing their necessary functions, aiming to reduce their size and responsibilities ‘to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law’.

Established by Congress in 1996, the IMLS is dedicated to supporting America’s museums, libraries, and archives through grants, research, and policy development.

Last year, the IMLS received over 294.8 million (all figures USD) in federal funds. States that benefitted the most from their allocation were California at 26.4 million, New York at close to 20 million, Texas at 15.7 million, and Florida at 11.4 million, according to the agency.

Altogether, the IMLS gave 266.7 million in grants and awards, including 55 million allocated to museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art and New Museum in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

According to the White House factsheet, cutting these governmental entities will ‘save taxpayer dollars, reduce unnecessary government spending, and streamline government priorities’.

Library advocacy groups said they are ‘extremely concerned’ that the order could affect ‘core functions’ of the IMLS, notably funding state libraries, given previous orders Trump signed to back cost-cutting measures through federal staff cuts, and are asking Congress to intervene.

Advocacy group EveryLibrary is appealing to Americans to tell Congress to ‘hold the line’, saying ‘without this core federal funding for state libraries, museums, and archives, we risk losing critical programs and services in every state’.

The federal job purge more recently impacted the General Services Administration’s fine arts and preservation units, who maintain and have commissioned some 26,000 public artworks, with employees dismissed because they ‘no longer align’ with agency and White House goals.

Agencies at risk include D.C. think-tank Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for research and global policy, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, and international broadcasting supervisor, the United States Agency for Global Media.

Other agencies listed in Trump’s order include the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency. —[O]

Main image: President Trump (4 March 2025). Photo: Wikimedia Commons.