Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump is calling on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to install a 30-foot statue of George Washington and create a five-year exhibition honoring the nation’s first president.
Trump said the proposed “Washington Colossus” should replace “Infinity,” the abstract stainless-steel sculpture outside the museum’s Constitution Avenue entrance. He also asked that an 11-foot Washington statue recently displayed at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix be installed inside the museum’s Flag Hall.
“Replace a sculpture that says nothing about America with the man who, more than anyone else, says everything about America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He wants the accompanying Washington exhibition to run through Feb. 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.
The request is part of Trump’s broader campaign to reshape how the Smithsonian presents American history. His administration has accused the institution of emphasizing slavery, oppression and other historical injustices at the expense of national achievements, while Smithsonian leaders have defended their commitment to scholarship, accuracy and nonpartisanship.
The Smithsonian already prominently displays Washington. Its National Museum of American History houses Horatio Greenough’s massive 1840 marble sculpture, commissioned by Congress for Washington’s 100th birthday and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1908.
It remains unclear whether Trump can directly order the changes. The Smithsonian operates under an independent Board of Regents rather than as a conventional executive-branch agency.
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