Waste of the Day: Taxpayer-Funded Exhibit Lionized Fauci

Topline: The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History spent $18 million on its “Entertainment Nation” exhibit, which displayed a mask supposedly worn by Dr. Anthony Fauci next to Star Wars droids and Mister Rogers’ sweater.

Fauci honored – with his face mask

Key facts: Entertainment Nation was first planned in 2019 when Donald Trump’s administration spent $4.4 million on the initial plans, according to financial documents obtained by OpenTheBooks. The exhibit was completed by Joe Biden’s administration for another $13.5 million and opened in Dec. 2022.

The Smithsonian featured the mask Fauci wore when he threw the opening pitch at a 2020 Washington Nationals baseball game, celebrating it as a cultural artifact on par with Prince’s guitar and Muhammad Ali’s gloves. Or, so the exhibit claims. The mask is actually an unused one that Fauci signed and donated to the Smithsonian after the game, investigative journalist Emily Miller discovered.

Fauci also donated the 3D-printed model of the Covid-19 virus he often used in his on-camera presentations. It’s just one of many “Covid-19 artifacts” the Smithsonian has been collecting, like a Black Lives Matter facemask and stickers with the words “Vaccine of Hope.”

Other odd displays in Entertainment Nation include a section about circuses, claiming they “expressed the colonial impulse to claim dominion over the world.”

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

No more such honors will go forward

Background: Another exhibit of Fauci was planned for the National Institutes of Health Museum, but the Department of Government Efficiency canceled the $168,000 contract in February. The price tag included “project management, site visits, design consultation, back walls, columns” and more. 

A mural of Fauci was also removed from the NIH’s office building this year.

Critical quote: White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Washington Post, “Americans are no longer interested in blind faith adherence to demonstrably fallible ‘experts’ like Anthony Fauci.”

Supporting quote: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) blasted the Trump administration’s erasure of Fauci, telling the Washington Post, “This is the kind of treatment that scientists get in totalitarian societies like Stalinist Russia if they don’t toe the political line of the leaders.”

Summary: Supporting or disagreeing with Fauci’s politics is fine either way. Spending taxpayer money to prop up those politics is much more questionable. 

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.