President Trump is giving the Smithsonian days to remove a 1967 modernist sculpture from its flagship history museum and begin honoring George Washington with a towering new statue, a demand that tests the limits of executive power over the nation's most prominent cultural institution.
In a series of social media posts late Friday, Trump called on the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to tear out "Infinity," a rotating stainless steel abstract sculpture that has stood at the museum's south entrance on the National Mall for nearly six decades, and replace it with a 30-foot "Washington Colossus." He also demanded a five-year exhibition dedicated to the first president's life and a separate 11-foot Washington statue installed inside the museum's Flag Hall by Constitution Day, September 17.
The demands mark the sharpest escalation yet in a running clash between the Trump White House and the Smithsonian Institution over how America's history is presented to millions of visitors each year, a fight that has already cost the institution's top leader his job and drawn charges of political interference from the left.
New York artist José de Rivera created "Infinity" on a federal commission. The abstract piece, a looping band of polished steel, was installed outside the museum in 1967. Trump made clear he sees it as a symbol of institutional drift.
"That strange modernist sculpture tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes."
He framed the swap in direct terms:
"Replace a sculpture that says nothing about America with the man who, more than anyone else, says everything about America."
The proposed exhibition would run through February 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington's birth. Trump singled out Washington's Christmas-night crossing of the Delaware River in 1776 and the surprise American victory at the Battle of Trenton as events the museum fails to give proper attention. The country is currently marking its own 250th anniversary, a backdrop that makes the gap between the Smithsonian's programming and the nation's founding story harder to ignore.
Trump also called for the Smithsonian's Center for Restorative History, a program critics have flagged as ideologically driven and which has recently ended, to be replaced with a "Center for American Heroes." He described the new center's mission in his post:
"Tell the stories of Americans who faced great challenges, overcame them, built great things, defended our Country, made America better, and helped our Nation more fully live up to our Founding Ideals."
Friday's demands did not come out of nowhere. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," which accused the Smithsonian of promoting what the administration called "race-centered ideology." The order directed a sweeping review of exhibitions, staff practices, and narrative standards across the institution's 21 museums.
A White House letter sent to the Smithsonian secretary outlined the scope: a thorough review of all museums' exhibitions, materials, and operations, with eight museums initially targeted. Those included the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The letter stated the review "aims to ensure alignment with the President's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions."
A separate White House report issued this year went further, criticizing the Smithsonian for what it described as a lack of attention to Washington and other Founding Fathers. Then in July, Trump ordered his administration to place signs outside the National Museum of American History telling visitors that some exhibits are inaccurate, a move that drew predictable outrage from the same circles that treat any reassertion of patriotic history as a threat.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch announced last week that he will step down at the end of the year. The departure comes after months of friction between Bunch and the Trump administration over the museum's direction. Fox News Digital reached out to the Smithsonian for comment on Trump's latest demands but did not immediately receive a response.
The institution's Board of Regents, which includes Vice President JD Vance, Chief Justice John Roberts, lawmakers from both parties, and citizen members, issued a statement last year acknowledging that the Smithsonian "can and must do more." The board said it was committed to keeping the institution nonpartisan and directed leadership to ensure museum content is unbiased.
That statement reads differently now. If the board's own members conceded the Smithsonian had a problem, the question is why it took presidential social media posts to force the issue into the open.
The Smithsonian Institution sits outside the executive branch. It is governed by its Board of Regents, not the White House. Whether Trump can legally compel the museum to remove a sculpture, commission a 30-foot statue, or redesign its exhibition calendar remains an open question, one the institution has so far declined to answer publicly.
But legal authority and political leverage are different things. The Smithsonian depends on federal funding. Its board includes the vice president and the chief justice. Its outgoing secretary is already heading for the exits. And the administration has shown it is willing to escalate, from executive orders to public reports to physical signs posted outside the building. Just The News reported that Trump framed his case in sweeping terms, arguing the museum presents American history with a critical bias focused on slavery and oppression while ignoring the nation's achievements.
Trump put his view of Washington plainly:
"He is easily America's Greatest Hero. Without him, our Country and our Freedoms wouldn't exist."
The administration's broader push to reshape how federal institutions present American history has made friction well beyond the Smithsonian. A federal appeals court recently cleared the Interior Department to replace a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia, another flashpoint in the ongoing debate over what stories taxpayer-funded museums choose to tell, and which ones they leave out.
The Washington Examiner noted that the proposed statue would replace the abstract "Infinity" at the museum's main entrance, the first thing visitors see when they approach the building that bears the name "National Museum of American History." That a modernist steel loop, rather than any representation of the nation's founding, has greeted visitors since 1967 is the kind of detail that speaks for itself.
Trump's executive order from March 2025 described the problem in institutional terms, accusing the Smithsonian of falling "under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology." The order characterized the museum system as once "widely respected as a symbol of American excellence", language that frames the current fight not as political overreach but as restoration.
Whether the Smithsonian complies, resists, or negotiates some middle path will test whether a federally funded institution can indefinitely ignore the elected government's view of what the national museum ought to celebrate. The Board of Regents already admitted the institution needed to do more. The president is now telling them exactly what "more" looks like.
A nation turning 250 should not have to fight its own museums to honor the man who made it possible.