The Smithsonian Institution has temporarily removed references to presidential impeachment efforts — including both of President Donald Trump’s impeachments — from an exhibit on executive power.
The revisions affect the “Limits on Presidential Power” section of the exhibit titled The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, which is currently undergoing renovation. According to ABC News, the section had not been updated since its last review in 2008.
“In reviewing our legacy content recently, it became clear that the ‘Limits of Presidential Power’ section… needed to be addressed,” a Smithsonian spokesperson told ABC News.
The section originally included references to impeachment proceedings involving Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump. It featured a temporary label detailing Trump’s two impeachments and the impeachment proceedings or threats faced by the other presidents.
The exhibit had also acknowledged Nixon’s resignation before the House could vote on articles of impeachment, as well as the historical context of Johnson’s and Clinton’s cases.
Smithsonian staff confirmed to The Washington Post that the section is being redesigned and that impeachment references will return in a future update.
For now, the exhibit states only that “three presidents have seriously faced removal.”
The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden opened in 2000 and features artifacts such as a damaged filing cabinet from the 1972 Watergate break-in, an investigative report from Clinton’s 1999 impeachment, and images of Johnson’s impeachment prosecutors from 1868.
Although the physical exhibit has omitted the impeachment references for the time being, the online version still includes details on all five cases.
President Trump was impeached by the Democrat-led House in 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to the Russiagate investigation.
He was impeached again on Jan. 13, 2021 following the events of Jan. 6, when rioters stormed the Capitol during the certification of the 2020 election results.
Both impeachments were acquitted in the Senate.
