In 2021, the museum’s “American Presidency” display was updated to include a placard referring to all Presidential impeachment processes. A reference to US President Donald Trump‘s two impeachment proceedings has been subtly removed from a significant display at the National Museum of American History by the Smithsonian Institution. The decision was made in response to demands from the White House to provide a more selective and optimistic account of American history.
In a contentious reversal, the National Museum of American History under the Smithsonian Institution wiped any mention of former President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from its exhibition, that is, “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden.” In its earlier days, the section showed a 2021 label stating that Trump had been impeached in 2019 and 2021. It has now reverted to a previous version authored back in 2008, one that conveniently did not mention Trump at all. According to museum officials, the content was reverted during routine legacy content review to restore sections that had remained unchanged since 2008.
Opponents protest that the reversal is a much larger phenomenon of political interference. In March of the same year, President Trump issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” calling upon Vice President J. D. Vance and others to cleanse from federal museums such as the Smithsonian any references to “improper” or “divisive” ideology, as labeled by his administration. Observers say that the Smithsonian’s action was taken amid attempts to remodel historic narratives by minimizing references to controversial events associated with Trump’s presidency.
Why were the impeachment exhibits removed?
The section, which contains information on the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the Watergate incident that resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, needs to be redesigned, according to Smithsonian spokesperson Phillip Zimmerman on Friday. It was decided, he said, after the museum “reviewed our legacy content recently.”
“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,” Zimmerman said in an email.
In March, Trump issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” in which he alleged that the Smithsonian was beholden to “a divisive, race-centred ideology.”
Political Interference and Historical Integrity: Implications
Historians and scholars have condemned the removal as a dangerous revisionist measure. Experts like Julian Zelizer and Jason Stanley warn that the omission of key events undermines public understanding and scholarship, equating it with authoritarian strategies for controlling collective memory. Yet, former officials, such as Timothy Naftali, the director of the Nixon Library, have said the practice is deeply troubling, maintaining that history ought to preserve accuracy even when unpopular.
But critics question how timely and transparent such proposed revisions actually are.
The dispute exposes a larger tension between political leadership and public institutions charged with preserving history. Supporters of the Smithsonian argue that museums ought to provide unvarnished accounts of America’s democratic processes, including failures and controversies. Attempts to sanitize or recast the past, they warn, may undermine the very essence of historical education and democratic accountability.
