They are testing the boundaries every chance they get -- and it's working:

A directive from the Office of Management and Budget could force the Smithsonian Institution to change its spending plans to match President Donald Trump's priorities -- or risk not getting some of the money Congress appropriated for its operations.

An apportionment -- documents that direct federal agencies on how to spend congressionally approved money -- approved by OMB in May is aimed at compelling the Smithsonian to spend congressionally appropriated funding in a way that's "consistent with the FY 2026 President's Budget" in order to receive it. The president's budget differed widely from what Congress ultimately chose to fund.

OMB also instructed the Smithsonian to submit a request "specifying each activity and the associated estimated federal obligation amount."

Trump has repeatedly tried to reshape the Smithsonian, insisting its prior offerings were too "woke" and insufficiently patriotic. The May directive puts the Smithsonian in a major bind, creating hurdles to access congressional funding, experts said.

"The budget guys at the Smithsonian, it puts them in a ridiculous position," a former Hill staffer and appropriations expert who would only talk on the condition of anonymity told NOTUS. "If they spend money that OMB tells them to spend, then they're in violation of the Antideficiency Act, which dates back to the Civil War. It involves an agency or a person spending money that's not been appropriated, and it has criminal fucking penalties, man."

"And if they don't spend money Congress told them to spend, then they're in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, which does not have criminal penalties. But it's a pretty good constitutional crisis."

I'm sure this will hit the Supremes some time in the next five years and they'll decide that it's fine for presidents to do whatever they need to do to fulfill the constitutional requirement that Republicans be allowed to do whatever they want.

I think the most galling aspect of this is the fact that it's Trump, Trump, dictating the contents of a world-class historical museum -- a cretinous, know-nothing moron who's never read a book and has never stepped into a museum or a library in his long adult life.