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President Donald Trump met with Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III for lunch at the White House on Thursday.
“The White House lunch meeting was productive and cordial,” a White House official told CNN.
The meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times, comes as Trump has directed his attorneys to conduct a review of museums, claiming the Smithsonian is “out of control” and that “everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”
The Trump administration earlier this month it would be conducting an internal review of Smithsonian Institution materials and exhibits in an effort to comply with Trump’s directive about what should and shouldn’t be displayed.
Lindsey Halligan, who is leading the administration’s review, also attended the White House lunch, the official said.
Last week, Halligan told Fox News that Smithsonian museums have “an overemphasis on slavery,” arguing “there should be more of an overemphasis on how far we’ve come since slavery.”
CNN has reached out to the Smithsonian Institution — the organization that runs the nation’s major public museums — for comment on the meeting.
This is a developing story and will be updated.