Trump administration reviews Smithsonian for partisan content
The Trump administration ordered the Smithsonian to align exhibits with American exceptionalism.
The Trump administration is reviewing eight Smithsonian museums, including the National Portrait Gallery, to remove what it calls woke and divisive material.The White House objected to several past and present exhibits, including some not currently on display.The museum’s mission is to tell America’s story by portraying people who shaped its history and culture.
The National Portrait Gallery is among the first Smithsonian museums President Donald Trump’s administration is reviewing as part of an effort to eliminate “wokeness” in the country’s cultural institutions.
The White House mentioned the museum several times in its list of Smithsonian objections it published in August. Its items and exhibits will be reviewed so that they “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
USA TODAY visited the museum, along with four others, to assess the administration’s concerns and get visitors’ perspectives.
Here’s what to know about the National Portrait Gallery:
The museum’s origins
Congress passed legislation to establish the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1962.
The law calls for it to “function as a free public museum for the exhibition and study of portraiture and statuary depicting men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States and of the artists who created such portraiture and statuary.”
It houses a complete collection of presidential portraits – the only one in the country outside the White House, according to the museum. It started commissioning such portraits in the 1990s, starting with former President George H.W. Bush.
The building, which it also shares with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is a national historic landmark that dates back to 1836, when it was built for the U.S. Patent Office.
What we found visiting
The White House’s list condemned a performance art series that took place in 2015 and 2016, an oil painting showing refugees crossing the U.S. border into Texas that hasn’t been displayed since 2023, an animation of Dr. Anthony Fauci not currently on display and a since-scrapped exhibit that was set to open in September and include a “painting depicting a transgender Statue of Liberty.”
The White House objected to the National Museum of American History’s portrayal of Benjamin Franklin, which it said “focuses almost solely on slavery,” though the National Portrait Gallery’s Franklin painting has no such references. It describes his “lifetime of achievement” and says he “remains highly visible today.”
The portrait museum has a dizzying array of galleries depicting everything from Old Hollywood to 17th-century Indigenous Americans. Its stated mission is to “tell the story of America by portraying the people who shape the nation’s history, development and culture.”
Indeed, among the museum’s collection are portraits of the most iconic figures in American history – the unfinished portrait of George Washington that served as the foundation for the image now seen on the $1 bill and the “cracked plate” portrait of Abraham Lincoln that the museum describes as “one of the most important and evocative photographs in American history.”
“The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit that opened in November 2024 and is set to end in September, says visitors will “find different ways that artists use sculpture to tell fuller stories about how race and racism shape the ways we understand ourselves, our communities and the United States.”
One of its sculptures, Nari Ward’s “Swing,” shows a car tire with embedded shoes hanging from a noose. Its description says the piece references the “brutal history of lynching in the United States” and that the shoes represent “the countless lives lost to racial violence, in the past and in our present day.”
The exhibit also says “American sculpture became a medium for expressing racist hierarchies” and that its pieces highlight sculpture’s “deep connections to notions of white supremacy and idealized white female virtue.”
In the “America’s Presidents” exhibit, the museum notes that neither Trump’s nor former President Joe Biden’s commissioned portraits have been unveiled.
Currently, a 2017 photograph by Matt McClain shows Trump, hands folded and wearing a red tie, looking directly at the visitor. At certain angles, the photo’s dark backdrop allows viewers to see the reflection of former President Barack Obama’s portrait that depicts him surrounded by greenery and flowers representing Chicago and Hawaii.
Biden is represented by a 2023 photograph taken at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco that shows him looking away from the camera as he stands behind a microphone.
What visitors said
Museum visitors said they did not feel like the museum was politically biased.
Ian Jayne, 29, said he appreciated the museum and didn’t think any of the exhibits were “woke.”
Jayne, a former Georgetown student now visiting from Oklahoma, said he hoped the Smithsonian would fight to maintain control over its exhibits.
“So much of American culture is about open expression,” he said.
Maya Ribault, 50, works near the National Portrait Gallery. She is a frequent guest and considers herself a bit of a superfan.
She said the museums do a great job of representing the nuance and diversity of America.
“If I could see the curators,” she said, “I’d give them a big hug.”
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.