WASHINGTON, September 15 — President Donald Trump wants the Smithsonian Institution to install a colossal statue of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History and to mount a special exhibit honoring the nation’s first president, escalating his push to reshape how the federal museum complex presents American history. In social media posts late Friday, Trump asked for the exhibit to begin now and continue through Feb. 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.
For Constitution Day on Sept. 17, he asked the institution to install the 11-foot statue of Washington featured at the recent Freedom 250 IndyCar race in the museum’s Flag Hall. He also wants a 30-foot statue of Washington to replace the current “Infinity” sculpture by New York artist Jose de Rivera, which was commissioned by the federal government and installed in 1967.
“He is easily America’s Greatest Hero. Without him, our Country and our Freedoms wouldn’t exist,” Trump posted on Truth Social as he flew to his golf course in Ireland.
The demands, and the limits of presidential power
It is not clear that Trump has the power to order the museum to make the changes. The Smithsonian operates outside the executive branch, and its leadership is overseen by a Board of Regents that includes Vice President JD Vance, Chief Justice John Roberts, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and a group of citizens. Trump complained that the museum currently doesn’t mention Washington’s fabled crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War.
That crossing took place on the night of Dec. 25-26, 1776, before the Battle of Trenton. Instead of a Center for Restorative History — described as a recently ended museum initiative that spotlighted stories excluded from the national historical narrative — Trump said the museum should have a “Center for American Heroes.”
A longer campaign over how America tells its story
The posts are the latest move in a broader effort by the administration to reshape the Smithsonian’s programming. Trump in March revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian with an executive order that targeted funding for programs that advanced “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.” The White House published a lengthy report this year that repeatedly complained the institution had not done enough to highlight Washington and other founders.
In July, he ordered his administration to install signs in front of the U.S. history museum telling visitors that some of the exhibits are inaccurate, part of his initiatives to reshape how the story of the United States is told. The Smithsonian Institution is a museum and research complex in Washington, D.C., and the National Museum of American History is one of its constituent museums.
George Washington, the first U.S. president, was born on Feb. 22, 1732, making Feb. 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of his birth. Constitution Day is observed on Sept. 17, marking the date in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia. What comes next turns on the Board of Regents.
The Smithsonian’s governance structure gives the board, not the White House, authority over its exhibits and grounds — and whether the regents act on Trump’s requests, or resist them, will signal how far the administration’s pressure campaign can reach into the institution’s day-to-day decisions.
