Culture wars step up as Trump is removed from gallery of the impeached

It was revealed last week that a reference to Trump’s two first-term impeachments had been cut from The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, an exhibition at the National Museum of American History in Washington.

A spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution told The Observer that under a review of legacy content “it became clear that the ‘Limits of Presidential Power’ section in [the] exhibition needed to be addressed”.

The museum said that since other topics in a section addressing Congress, the supreme court, impeachment and public opinion had not been updated since 2008, “the decision was made to restore the impeachment case back to its 2008 appearance”.

The spokesperson denied that the institution had been put under pressure. “We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit.”

Trump had been added to the display in 2021 after he was impeached for a second time by a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Trump called the first impeachment an attempted “coup” and the second “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country”.

Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, as well as Richard Nixon – who would have faced impeachment had he not resigned – remain part of the display. No US president has been removed from office under the system.

The Smithsonian clarified that “a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments”, which would "take place in the coming weeks".

The decision to remove the reference to Trump has become another skirmish in an intensifying political war over cultural and historical representation. The administration has taken steps to withdraw funding from institutions it accuses of promoting “unhealthy” ideologies, including public broadcasters and universities. In May, Trump appointed Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer and now deputy attorney general, as acting head of the Library of Congress, one of the largest libraries in the world.

Politicians or political movements exerting influence over cultural institutions is hardly new. Four years ago, accusations of systemic racism brought down senior officials at New York’s Guggenheim museum. Wealthy trustees of other institutions, including the Whitney, have been forced out after protests over their sources of wealth.

But Trump’s cultural reorientation moves are, according to New York art critic Linda Yablonsky, “about remaking this country into the image of one person, and that’s it. Either you flatter the president or you’re out. Nothing else is permissible.”

In March, Trump issued an executive order aimed at removing what he considers improper ideologies from the Smithsonian. The order tasked officials, including vice-president JD Vance, who serves on its Board of Regents, with ensuring the museum’s programmes did not promote “narratives that portray American and western values as inherently harmful and oppressive”.

Gerard Filitti, a cultural commentator and senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, says that as a quasi-independent institution, the Smithsonian is insulated from direct presidential control by its structure and funding.

Trump may wish to exert influence, but lacks authority to dictate curatorial decisions, which fall within the purview of Smithsonian staff and its secretary, Lonnie G Bunch III, acting under the oversight of the board.

“The removal of Trump’s impeachments from a temporary exhibit has raised concerns,” he says. “But while cultural preferences may shift across administrations, reflecting evolving priorities, the idea that major historical events – discussed extensively and publicly for years – would be permanently erased from the national narrative is implausible.”

Future administrations, “like past ones, may revise or restore content,” he adds. “Sometimes a placeholder really is just a placeholder.”

In June, the Smithsonian announced it was reviewing all content in its 21 museums to eliminate political influence and bias. Soon after, Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian, resigned after being criticised by Trump as “highly partisan”.

So far the Board of Regents, whose members include Democratic senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Gary Peters, has remained silent on the impeachment exhibit alteration. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said the administration is “fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness”.

Democrats are predictably furious. As Senator Adam Schiff, who led the first Trump impeachment, wrote on X: “This is what Donald Trump wants you to forget. America never will.”

Photograph by Universal Images Group/Getty, The White House/Getty and Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire