Trump Urges Smithsonian to Swap Modern Sculpture for Giant Washington Statue

President Trump has pressed the Smithsonian Institution to replace a 1967 abstract sculpture outside the National Museum of American History with a 30-foot statue of George Washington. The demand arrives weeks before the head of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch III, retires at year’s end after documented friction with the administration over exhibition priorities.

Trump posted the request on Truth Social on September 11, 2026. He asked the museum to move an existing 11-foot Washington statue into Flag Hall by Constitution Day, September 17, then design a five-year exhibition on Washington’s life and later install the larger “Washington Colossus” where the piece titled “Infinity” now stands. The current work, a rotating stainless-steel form by Jose de Rivera, was the first modern sculpture commissioned by the federal government for the National Mall.

The president argued that the existing sculpture “tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes.” He also faulted the museum for omitting Washington’s crossing of the Delaware and the battles of Trenton in its 250th-anniversary programming. Trump proposed replacing the Smithsonian’s Center for Restorative History with a Center for American Heroes and criticized one label that described the period 1492–1776 as the “Great Unsettling.”

Bunch’s departure follows these exchanges. Trump’s statements link the leadership change to broader institutional shifts, including the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture under Bunch. No Smithsonian response or cost estimate for the proposed statue has been released publicly.