Smithsonian to restore Trump to impeachment exhibit ‘in the coming weeks’

The Smithsonian said on Saturday that it would restore information about President Donald Trump’s two impeachments to an exhibit in the National Museum of American History within weeks.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that in July, the museum removed a placard describing Trump’s impeachments and reverted the exhibit to how it looked in 2008. That display – a glass case dominated by a file cabinet damaged in the Watergate break-in – says that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal”: Andrew Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton.

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The placard mentioning Trump was removed from the exhibition, “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden,” after what the Smithsonian called a “review” of “legacy content.” A person familiar with the exhibit plans, who was not authorized to discuss them publicly, previously told The Post the placard was removed as part of a content review the Smithsonian undertook following pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director.

“We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit,” the Smithsonian said in a statement Saturday. “The section in question, Impeachment, will be updated in the coming weeks to reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history.”

Before it was removed last month, the placard had been on display since September 2021, according to a Smithsonian spokesperson. It read, “Case under redesign (history happens),” and mentioned Trump’s two impeachments, as well as details about the other three presidents.

In 2019, Trump was charged by the House with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his attempts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden. Two years later, he became the first president to be impeached twice when the House charged him with inciting an insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The Senate acquitted Trump both times, so he was never removed from office.

Trump has attempted to exert influence over prominent cultural institutions in his second term, taking over the John F. Kennedy Center 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, he 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.”

National Museum of American History spokeswoman Valeska Hilbig told The Post that removing the placard was the only change it made as a result of its content review.

In Saturday’s statement, the Smithsonian defended its decision to remove the placard even as it promised to quickly add Trump’s impeachments back to the exhibit.

“The placard, which was meant to be a temporary addition to a twenty-five year-old exhibition, did not meet the museum’s standards in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation,” the statement said. “It was not consistent with other sections in the exhibit and moreover blocked the view of the objects inside its case. For these reasons, we removed the placard.”

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Janay Kingsberry contributed to this report.

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