Smithsonian Reportedly Caves To Trump Pressure - Scrubs His Impeachment From Historic Exhibit

President Donald Trump has applied pressure on various Washington institutions that would have been unimaginable under any other president, including firing most of the board of the Kennedy Center and attempting to push out the director of the National Portrait Gallery.

Now, Trump’s pressure has extended to the Smithsonian, and specifically an exhibition called “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden.”

The Washington Post reported Thursday that this month, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History edited an exhibit, to remove any reference to Trump’s two impeachments during his first term. And per the Post, which cited “a person familiar with the exhibit plans, who was not authorized to discuss them publicly,” the removal came about as a result of a “content review,” following “pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director.”

The exhibit was restored to how it looked in 2008, before the Trump impeachments.

This is so pathetic https://t.co/pjOoDE3ECY

— Sam Stein (@samstein) July 31, 2025

Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.

By subscribing, you agree to receive emails from Political Tribune and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You further agree that the use of reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy and Terms of Use.

“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.”

After the Post story appeared, the Smithsonian told the newspaper that “a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments.”

In mid-2023, when Trump was out office, there was actually legislation introduced that would have “expunged” Trump’s impeachments, with Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introducing one and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Neither effort advanced in Congress, as Constitutional experts argued that doing so would have no legal force. It doesn’t appear that the expungement idea has been revisited since Trump returned to the White House.

There were some outraged reactions to the Smithsonian news.

I visited the Smithsonian after the inauguration specifically to take pictures of anything that seemed like it might get censored, and there were times during that day when I started to wonder if this was just irrational doomscroll-induced paranoia. Welp https://t.co/51W8iGbjh5 pic.twitter.com/vDJHglf7Fa

— RednBlackSalamander (@9mmballpoint) August 1, 2025

THIS IS INSANE. Under pressure from Trump, The Smithsonian has REMOVED reference to Trump’s impeachment in their display on impeachment (which includes Clinton, Nixon, Johnson). Just erasing history to appease an authoritarian.

Another institution caves. pic.twitter.com/AVk3vcRq2b

— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) July 31, 2025

Talk about rewriting history. 57 senators voted to remove Trump in 2021. 50 voted to remove Clinton in 1999 (45 on another article.) So Trump was closer to removal than Clinton. And the Smithsonian is making false historical claims to appease him. https://t.co/Omsf2rH0EZ pic.twitter.com/lLHtxljzdR

— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) July 31, 2025

Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.