Smithsonian denies White House pressure to remove Trump impeachment references

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House did not pressure the Smithsonian to remove references to President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit and will include him in an updated presentation “in the coming weeks,” the museum said Saturday.

The revelation that Trump was no longer listed among impeached presidents sparked concern that history was being whitewashed to appease the president.

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

A museum spokesperson, Phillip Zimmerman, had previously pledged that “a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments,” but it was not clear when the new exhibit would be installed. The museum on Saturday did not say when in the coming weeks the new exhibit will be ready.

A label referring to Trump’s impeachments had been added in 2021 to the National Museum for American History’s exhibit on the American presidency, in a section called “Limits of Presidential Power.” The section includes materials on the impeachment of Presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson and the Watergate scandal that helped lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

“The placard, which was meant to be a temporary addition to a twenty-five year-old exhibition, did not meet the museum’s standards in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation,” the statement said. “It was not consistent with other sections in the exhibit and moreover blocked the view of the objects inside its case. For these reasons, we removed the placard.”

Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice — in 2019, for pushing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, who would later defeat Trump in the 2020 presidential election; and in 2021 for “incitement of insurrection,” a reference to the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters attempting to halt congressional certification of Biden’s victory.

The Democratic majority in the House voted each time for impeachment. The Republican-led Senate each time acquitted Trump.