Smithsonian Removes Reference to Trump’s Impeachments, but Says It Will Return

President Trump’s impeachments were mentioned in an exhibit on the American presidency that museum officials said was outdated. A Smithsonian spokeswoman said a future exhibit would include “all impeachments.”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History this month removed a label referring to President Trump’s two impeachments, a move museum officials said was part of a review of the institution’s content for bias.

The temporary label was added in 2021 to an exhibition about the American presidency. The label also included information about the impeachments of former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, as well as about former President Richard M. Nixon, who faced possible impeachment before resigning from office.

Mr. Trump is the only American president to have been impeached twice, in 2019 and again in 2021. He was acquitted both times after facing trials in the Senate.

The removal of the label, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, came after the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, which governs the institution, recently committed to reviewing its content under pressure from the Trump administration. Mr. Trump has called for a more positive framing of the country’s history in Smithsonian museums, and tried to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery, accusing her of being political.

The label was part of an exhibit called “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden,” which opened in 2000 but has not been updated substantially since 2008. The museum removed the temporary label until a fuller update could be undertaken, the Smithsonian said.

“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,” Linda St. Thomas, a Smithsonian spokeswoman, 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.”

References to Mr. Trump’s two impeachments would be included in the exhibit at the time of the fuller update, Ms. St. Thomas said. She did not say when that addition would take place, but noted in the statement that a permanent gallery like the one about the American presidency would require a “significant amount of time and funding to update and renew.”

“A future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments,” she said.

The Smithsonian has been closely scrutinized by Mr. Trump, who issued an executive order in March asserting that the country had “witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history” by the institution. He argued that the Smithsonian had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.”

In the order, he called on Vice President JD Vance, a member of the Smithsonian’s board, to work with Congress to prohibit expenditures on exhibitions or programs that “degrade shared American values, divide Americans by race or promote ideologies inconsistent with federal law.”

In May, Mr. Trump announced on social media that he was firing the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, accusing her of being partisan and supportive of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. His authority to do so was contested by the Smithsonian. Ms. Sajet subsequently stepped down, saying that her decision was in the best interests of the institution.

The Smithsonian in January closed its diversity office after Mr. Trump signed an executive order banning diversity programs in federally funded institutions. The National Gallery of Art changed its mission statement, replacing the words “diversity, equity, access and inclusion” with “welcoming and accessible.”

After Mr. Trump attempted to fire Ms. Sajet, the Smithsonian’s board issued a resolution asserting its independence with personnel decisions. But the resolution also agreed to review exhibition content for bias.

This month, the artist Amy Sherald withdrew an upcoming show at the National Portrait Gallery, saying she believed that the museum was considering removing her painting depicting a transgender Statue of Liberty — an effort, she added, meant to avoid provoking Mr. Trump. Ms. Sherald had risen to fame with her 2018 portrait of Michelle Obama.

The Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, includes museums, libraries and the National Zoo.

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