WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, in late Friday night Truth Social posts covered Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, called on the Smithsonian Institution to install George Washington monuments and a multi-year exhibition at the National Museum of American History — including a demand to replace Jose de Rivera’s rotating outdoor sculpture Infinity with a 30-foot “Washington Colossus,” the New York Post and Associated Press reported.

“I’m asking for the Smithsonian to install the 11-foot Washington statue that was featured at the recent Freedom 250 Grand Prix Race in the Museum’s Flag Hall, and dedicate it this Constitution Day, September 17, 2026. Immediately design and display a five-year exhibition worthy of the Life, Sacrifice, and Contributions of George Washington. Then, as soon as it is ready, install a 30-foot Washington Colossus where ‘Infinity’ stands today,” Trump wrote, according to the Post.

“Replace a sculpture that says nothing about America with the man who, more than anyone else, says everything about America,” he added. In a separate post he called Infinity a “strange modernist” work that “tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes,” arguing Washington “is easily America’s Greatest Hero.”

Infinity, by New York abstract artist Jose de Rivera, was dedicated in 1967 and was the first modern artwork commissioned by the U.S. government for the National Mall under the Art and Architecture Program, museum materials cited by the Post say. Trump also complained the museum “failed to give George Washington and our other Founding Fathers the celebration they deserve” in the nation’s 250th anniversary year, saying Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware and the victory at Trenton get too little attention, per the Post and AP.

The ask lands the same week Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III announced he will retire at year’s end amid White House pressure over how the museums tell American history — coverage we published Sept. 8 (Lonnie Bunch to retire as Smithsonian secretary amid Trump museum pressure). Trump’s posts again slammed a “Center for Restorative History” and a “Decolonization Plan,” and urged a “Center for American Heroes” instead, the Post reported.

Whether Trump can simply order the swap is another matter. The Smithsonian operates outside the executive branch; its Board of Regents includes Vice President JD Vance, Chief Justice John Roberts, a bipartisan slate of lawmakers, and citizen members, AP noted. A March executive order and later White House reports already targeted what the administration calls “divisive narratives” at the museums, and in July Trump ordered signs outside the history museum disputing some exhibits — still pressure, not a line-item command over statue plazas.

Honoring Washington is a fair cultural argument. Concentrating that argument through overnight Truth Social demands on a chartered, independently governed museum is a power question — and one the Regents, not the Oval Office alone, still have to answer.

Sources