The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, DC, has removed a wall text accompanying a portrait of US president Donald Trump that mentioned he was impeached twice during his first term. The text had accompanied his portrait in the museum’s popular permanent exhibition America’s Presidents—a formal portrait by The Washington Post photographer Matt McClain from 2017 that showed Trump with his trademark bright-red tie and framed in shadow.
The text accompanying the McClain photo listed many of Trump’s achievements in his first term, including that he “appointed a record number of federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices”, his role in promoting the development of Covid-19 vaccines and diplomatic agreements between Israel and several Arab nations brokered by his administration. It continued: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election.”
According to The New York Times, the sentence about Trump’s impeachment was one of the grievances listed in a document prepared by the White House last spring when the president attempted to fire Kim Sajet, the NPG’s director, accusing her of bias and being a “highly partisan person”. Though Smithsonian leadership responded at the time that personnel matters were beyond the executive branch’s purview and would be handled internally, Sajet ultimately resigned two weeks later. Elliot Gruber, the Smithsonian’s undersecretary for museums and culture, is currently serving as the NPG’s acting director.
The label claimed that the McClain portrait would remain on view until Trump’s officially commissioned portrait painting is unveiled. In the past week, it was replaced with a black-and-white portrait by the White House photographer Daniel Torok, which shows a frowning Trump resting with his fists atop the “resolute desk” in the Oval Office. In a statement to The New York Times on 10 January, a White House spokesperson described the portrait as an “iconic photo” and said that Trump’s “unmatched aura will be seen and felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery”.
The wall text accompanying the Torok portrait simply notes that Trump was born in 1946 and is both the 45th and 47th president of the US. A spokesperson for the NPG tells The Art Newspaper: “The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery, which will undergo a larger refresh this spring.”
A note on the NPG’s website states that the entire gallery will be closed for updates from 6 April to 14 May. The museum last remodelled the America’s Presidents gallery in early 2017.
Prior to Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017, the NPG installed a tonally very different photograph, taken in 1989 by Michael O’Brien. It shows the future president dressed similarly as in the McClain portrait, in a dark suit and bright-red tie, against a cloud-speckled blue sky, one hand resting on his hip and the other poised to catch an apple in mid-air.
The NPG spokesperson adds: “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name. The history of presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History. The previous label of the National Portrait Gallery’s portrait remains available on the museum’s website.”
Last summer, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History removed a temporary label in its exhibition The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden that had been added in 2021 and discussed the impeachments of presidents Trump, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and the possible impeachment of Richard Nixon that led to his resignation. A Smithsonian spokesperson explained at the time that the entire section of the exhibition titled “The Limits of Presidential Power”, which had not been updated since 2008, “needed to be addressed”.
Since Trump’s return to office, he has repeatedly criticised the Smithsonian and several of its museums while the White House has initiated a review of content, programming and decision-making at eight of its 21 museums as part of an effort to “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism”.
The Smithsonian’s secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch, has explained that the institution is leading its own review of its activities and exhibitions for possible partisan bias. But in a letter last month the White House redoubled its efforts to obtain a trove of materials related to the inner workings of the Smithsonian, giving its leaders a deadline of 13 January.
“As you may know, funds apportioned for the Smithsonian Institution are only available for use in a manner consistent with Executive Order 14253,” the director of the domestic policy council Vince Haley, and the director of the office of management and budget Russell Vought, wrote in the 18 December letter.
The funding the Smithsonian receives from the federal government makes up around 62% of its annual budget and is determined through appropriations approved by Congress, not by the president. The disbursement of those funds, however, is controlled by the Office of Management and Budget.
The letter references a Trump executive order from 27 March 2025 titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, which claimed the Smithsonian had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centred ideology” and directed vice president J.D. Vance, in his role as a member of the Smithsonian’s board of regents, “to remove improper ideology from [its] properties”.
The renewed pressure to comply with Trump’s review and today’s deadline come at a crucial time for the Smithsonian, whose board of regents is due to change significantly this year as up to six seats are vacated. The 17-member governing body consists of four Democratic elected officials, four Republicans and nine citizen members. New appointments have to be approved by Congress and the president.
