Smithsonian Denies White House Pressure To Remove Trump Impeachment References

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Smithsonian announced on Saturday that the White House did not influence their decision to remove references to President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit. The museum stated that an updated presentation including Trump will be ready in the coming weeks.

“We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit,” the Smithsonian statement clarified.

Phillip Zimmerman, a museum spokesperson, previously assured that the future exhibit will cover all impeachments, but the timeline for installation remains unclear. The label referring to Trump’s impeachments was added to the National Museum for American History’s exhibit on the American presidency in 2021, but was recently removed due to not meeting the museum’s standards.

Trump, who was impeached twice, remains the only president to have faced such a fate. The first impeachment in 2019 was for pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, while the second impeachment in 2021 was for “incitement of insurrection” following the Capitol siege on January 6.

The House, with a Democratic majority, voted for impeachment both times, while the Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump on each occasion.