Washington DC is home to 17 Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries, offering a rich array of cultural experiences. Photo / Robert Urteaga
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in July removed references to United States President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit display.
A person familiar with the exhibit plans, who was not authorised to discuss them publicly, said the change came about as part of a content review that the Smithsonian agreed to undertake following pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director.
After this story was published, the Smithsonian said in a statement that “a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments”.
A temporary label including content about Trump’s impeachments had been on display since September 2021 at the Washington museum, a Smithsonian spokesperson told the Washington Post, adding that it was intended to be a short-term addition to address current events.
Now, the exhibit notes that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal”.
In addition to describing Trump’s two impeachments, the temporary label - which read “Case under redesign (history happens)” - also offered information about the impeachments of presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, as well as Richard M. Nixon, who would have faced impeachment had he not resigned. The Washington Post viewed a photograph of the temporary signage.
Now that display has returned to the way it appeared in 2008, according to the Smithsonian spokesperson.
“In reviewing our legacy content recently, it became clear that the ‘Limits of Presidential Power’ section in The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden exhibition needed to be addressed,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The section of this exhibition covers Congress, The Supreme Court, Impeachment, and Public Opinion. Because the other topics in this section had not been updated since 2008, the decision was made to restore the Impeachment case back to its 2008 appearance.”
The change coincides with broader concerns about political interference at the Smithsonian and how the institution charged with preserving American history could be shaped by the Trump Administration’s efforts to exert more control over its work.
“The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden” opened in 2000 and was curated by a team that included then-museum director Spencer Crew, curator Harry Rubenstein and historian Lonnie Bunch, who now leads the institute as secretary.
The impeachment case includes a photograph of the prosecutors in Andrew Johnson’s 1868 case, copies of the investigative report that launched Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings in 1999 and a damaged filing cabinet from the Watergate scandal that would prompt Nixon to resign in 1974.
The online companion for the display briefly mentions Trump’s impeachments but does not provide any further information about the cases.
And a search of the history museum’s collection for “impeachment” yields 125 results for Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton - and a single “Impeach Trump” button from a 2017 environmental protest.
The Smithsonian spokesperson said that a large gallery like “The American Presidency” requires a “significant amount of time and funding to update and renew”. Elsewhere in the exhibition, however, visitors can find more recent items, including commemorative pins from Trump and Joe Biden’s inaugurations in 2017 and 2021 and a large wall display featuring every US president.
In January 2020, following Trump’s first impeachment, a political history curator at the American History Museum told the Washington Post that he was on a quest to acquire the right objects to tell the story of Trump’s first impeachment.
At the time, he could not predict when the display would be updated, but he said work was under way to change labels and add items.
The Smithsonian that month also announced its plans to update the impeachment section, reaffirming its commitment to actively engage “with the history, spirit, and complexity of the United States’ democratic experiment by collecting, documenting and sharing the American political system, including presidential history”.
Trump is the only US president in history to have been impeached twice.
In 2019, he was charged by the House with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his attempts to withhold military aid meant for Ukraine and pressure its government to investigate his political rival Biden. He was acquitted by the Senate in 2020.
Then, just over a year later, Trump was impeached again, for incitement of insurrection following the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. He was acquitted a second time, after leaving office.
Since returning to the White House in January for his second term, Trump has attempted to exert influence over prominent cultural institutions, including by taking over the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, making drastic changes at the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and imposing budget cuts on the National Park Service.
In March, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate “anti-American ideology” across the Smithsonian museums and “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness”.
Months later, Trump attempted to fire Kim Sajet, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, for being a “highly partisan” person - though he had no authority to do so.
The White House later provided a list of 17 instances it said supported the President’s claims about her, including the caption for the museum’s presidential portrait of Trump mentioning his two impeachments and “incitement of insurrection” for the events of January 6.
In response, the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents reasserted in June that only the institution’s secretary could fire museum directors but also announced it would scrutinise content across its museum for partisan bias.
“As directed by the Board of Regents, we will undertake an assessment of the Institution, evaluating the need for any changes to policies, procedures, or personnel, and I will share our findings and recommendations with the Board,” Bunch wrote in an email to Smithsonian employees.
Shortly afterwards, Sajet announced her departure, explaining to staff that she was leaving because her presence had become a distraction from the Smithsonian’s mission.
Last week, the celebrated painter Amy Sherald pulled an upcoming exhibit from the Portrait Gallery, citing concerns that the museum considered removing her painting of a transgender woman posing as the Statue of Liberty.
“While no single person is to blame, it’s clear that institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives played a role,” Sherald said in a statement.