OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
1:28 PM – Friday, August 1, 2025
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., has removed references to President Donald Trump’s impeachments from the “Limits of Presidential Power” section found in The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden exhibition.
This month, the museum updated the historical display to return it to an older version without mentions of Trump’s impeachments. The exhibition references the impeachments of President Andrew Johnson and President Bill Clinton, in addition to President Richard Nixon’s resignation following the famous Watergate scandal, where he also faced impeachment.
President Trump has been impeached twice by the U.S. House of Representatives—once in December 2019 and again in January 2021. He was acquitted by the Senate both times. None of the impeachment efforts led to removal from office, reflecting that the required two‑thirds Senate majority for conviction was not reached.
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Back in September 2021, a temporary installation was made to include Trump’s impeachments from 2019 and 2021.
The Smithsonian stated that upon a recent review of their “legacy content,” the decision was made to pull the reference to Trump’s impeachments, as the signage was already temporary. Spokespersons emphasized that it was “a short-term measure to address current events at the time.”
“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,” a spokesperson for The Smithsonian Institution 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 current version of the exhibit now states that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal.”
However, on the flip side, a Washington Post article published Thursday night claimed that the Smithsonian stated the removal of content addressing Trump’s impeachments is temporary and will be updated once all sections of the exhibit are revised to maintain a consistent timeline.
“A future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments,” the statement read.
In March, the president exercised his power over the Smithsonian with an executive order signed in March entitled, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
In the “Saving Our Smithsonian” section, the order prohibited “expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values” or “promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.” The same section discouraged the Smithsonian from recognizing “men as women in any respect” or dividing Americans “based on race.”
“We are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness” White House Spokesperson Davis Ingle wrote in an email to NPR. “The Trump administration will continue working to ensure that the Smithsonian removes all improper ideology and once again unites and instills pride in all Americans regarding our great history.”
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