HISTORICAL GAMES

Smithsonian U-Turns on Trump Impeachment Exhibit Removal

The institution previously removed a placard describing the president’s two impeachments.

The Smithsonian Institution will restore information about President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit after removing it in July for a “content review” following pressure from the White House to remove National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet. In July, the Smithsonian removed information about Trump’s impeachment from “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden,” reverting to the 2008 version, which noted “only three presidents have seriously faced removal”: Andrew Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The Smithsonian announced Saturday it would restore the information “within weeks,” denying it had acted under pressure from the administration. “We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit,” the Smithsonian said in a statement to The Washington Post. “The section in question, Impeachment, will be updated in the coming weeks to reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history.” Trump was impeached for the first time in December 2019 and again in January 2021. He is the only president to have been impeached twice. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.