U.S. Tax Deductions for Donations to Foreign Museums—The Other Side

Today Tyler Green eloquently takes the other side of an argument I raised about whether the U.S. tax code should be used to help funnel American funds to foreign museums.
This is accomplished through “friends” groups that are established in the U.S. as 501(c) (3) U.S. charities, giving them full tax-exempt status. That allows donors to get the same financial benefits that they would in donating to U.S. institutions.
He makes me seem positively xenophobic, and his view is probably the majority one. But to me these organizations, while well intentioned, are contorted contrivances that allow foreign charitable purposes to masquerade as American ones. I have no quarrel with Americans’ donating to good causes in other countries; I’m just not sure that should trigger American tax benefits.
I’d be interested to hear what the lawyers have to say about all this.