The Smithsonian Institution has reinstated a key detail it removed from President Donald Trump’s portrait at a popular exhibit.
In a revamped exhibition showcasing “America’s Presidents” at the National Portrait Gallery, text on Trump’s wall once again references the two impeachments he faced during his first term as president, The New York Times has revealed.
This comes after references to the impeachments were removed from the wall in January, when the gallery in Washington, D.C. updated Trump’s portrait. It also stripped out the accompanying text noting his two impeachments, replacing it with a more minimal listing of his dates in office.
The updated exhibition, unveiled on Friday, includes details about Trump’s impeachments alongside his first-term accomplishments.
The “First-Term Events” section lists key moments from his presidency, beginning with his first impeachment in 2019 and noting that the Senate voted against removing him from office. It goes on to include the COVID-19 emergency response, national protests following the killing of George Floyd, the Abraham Accords, the January 6 Capitol attack, and his second impeachment in 2021, which also ended in acquittal in the Senate.
A White House spokesman told the Times that while it is appreciated that the institution restored “a fair and accurate description to President Trump’s 45th presidency portrait,” there are nonetheless “still many missing accomplishments from President Trump’s first historic first term.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House and the Smithsonian Institution by email but did not receive an immediate response.
The previous description of Trump’s impeachments was reportedly removed after White House officials complained about their inclusion.
The earlier removed text read: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
President Bill Clinton’s impeachment is also referenced in the wall text beside his portrait.
The original complaint about the text and its subsequent removal came as Trump began attacking “woke” ideology in cultural institutions, specifically criticizing the Smithsonian. He even signed an executive order in March 2025 that accused the Smithsonian of replacing “objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology.”
Trump also attempted to fire then-director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, in June, describing her as a “partisan person and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position.”
Sajet resigned two weeks later, with Trump portraying her departure as a personal victory.
“We followed all the normal review processes for the labels,” the National Portrait Gallery’s historian, Mindy Farmer, told The Times, claiming that the president’s complaints about the previous wording played no role in the change.
