There are so many huge, screaming indicators for America’s slide into authoritarian fascism. The economy, the lies, the way elected Republicans with power refuse to act as a check on Donald Trump, and on and on. But some of the smaller indicators are the most depressing to me. Museums, libraries, universities, TV shows, all collapsing under pressure from that orange sack of sh-t. Well, here’s one horrible example: the Smithsonian has now withdrawn references to Trump’s impeachment from their big presidential impeachment exhibition.
The Smithsonian has scrubbed references to Donald Trump’s impeachments from a museum display, following repeated attempts by the White House to make changes to the institution.
This month, the National Museum of American History removed a temporary label at an exhibit that described Trump’s two impeachments, reverting to an outdated label from 2008, according to The Washington Post.
The temporary label had reportedly been in place since 2021. The 2008 version states that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal,” referring to Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
The change took place as part of a content review that the Smithsonian agreed to conduct after Trump tried to fire the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery earlier this year, a person familiar with the exhibit plans told The Post.
A Smithsonian spokesperson told the newspaper that “a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments,” but did not specify when that would happen.
“In reviewing our legacy content recently, it became clear that the ‘Limits of Presidential Power’ section in The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden exhibition needed to be addressed,” the spokesperson told The Post. “The section of this exhibition covers Congress, The Supreme Court, Impeachment, and Public Opinion. Because the other topics in this section had not been updated since 2008, the decision was made to restore the Impeachment case back to its 2008 appearance.”
Yeah, this is actually what millions of people voted for. They watched that Nazi pumpkin husk order his followers to overthrow the government on January 6th, 2021, and the insurrection wasn’t a dealbreaker. The impeachment for inciting the insurrection wasn’t a dealbreaker for tens of millions of Americans. So this is what they wanted. All of it is being wiped clean. (Also: Trump remains the only person to be impeached twice. Commit that to memory before that’s erased as well.)
Also:
That demon tried to leap out of him
— Solomon (@solomonmissouri.bsky.social) July 31, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
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- United States Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California), preside over the Electoral College vote certification for President-elect Joe Biden, during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.,Image: 581530786, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: usage worldwide, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kevin Dietsch – Pool via CNP / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
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- Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California) walks from the House chamber to her office as the House of Representatives debate on H. Res. 24, Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, Wednesday, January 13, 2021.,Image: 583110805, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: usage worldwide, Model Release: no, Credit line: Rod Lamkey – CNP / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
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- Members of the National Guard walk past the U.S. Capitol as preparations are made for the upcoming inauguration of President Joe Biden at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, Friday, January 15, 2021.,Image: 583767422, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: usage worldwide, Model Release: no, Credit line: Rod Lamkey – CNP / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
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- Washington, DC – US President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks to supporters gathered to protest Congress’ upcoming certification of Joe Biden as the next president on the Ellipse in Washington, DC, USA, 06 January 2021. Various groups of Trump supporters are gathering to protest as Congress prepares to meet and certify the results of the 2020 US Presidential election. Pictured: Trump BACKGRID USA 6 JANUARY 2021 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DIST United States President Donald J Trump arrives to sign the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Pictured: President Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 30 JULY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DIST United States President Donald J Trump arrives to sign the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Pictured: President Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 30 JULY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I am so disappointed in them. They are supposed to be stewards of history and they bowed to this absolute f*cking loser.
I agree!! I am so PROUD of Harvard for standing up to Trump, ALSO I am so happy many corporations also put the middle finger up to the orange menace and didn’t do away with DEI as DER furor demanded!! WHY didn’t all the Universities and Corporations stick together & tell Don OLD at the beginning to GO kick rocks? Safety in numbers ( of course a FEW snowflake woosies would back down & let DUMB Donnie & Dumb Vance “frighten” them into submission) MIGHT of showed the GOP we WOULD stick together & NOT crumble over there threat’s! I THINK they are sinking NOW & ALOT of people are worrying about their children and elderly parents & don’t like what the RABID RIGHT Wingers have in store for all of us!! VOTE BLUE Always!!(!!!!!!!💙) XO
Disgusted with the Smithsonian Institute, disgusted with the National Park Service, just disgusted with everything. And horribly sad. This is all so awful.
No more PBS, no more NPR, but oooh, yeah, we get a golden ballroom added to the White House. 💩🤮😡
Won’t anyone stand up for Democracy? I am ashamed of America and the majority who voted for this and those who won’t call it.
I guess we all just imagined those two impeachments which unlike some of the others were legitimate and not political. Also, Nixon was never formally impeached. He resigned before Congress took a vote. Trump has less of a case than Nixon. This is all such 🐴💩.
As someone who did an internship at NMAH during grad school, this absolutely breaks my heart. Everyone that I worked with was so committed to preserving American history – the good and the bad – and to restoring the gaps in recorded American history. I’m sure they were under tons of pressure, and it is sad that they capitulated here. However, I have faith that there are archivists, curators, and historians there quietly backing up everything for posterity. Most of my former coworkers there saw their job as a calling, not as a job.
Unfortunately, we’re now in the era of “Slavery was a job training program”, so I don’t hold out much hope for accurate history going forward.
Maybe not for the “official” record keeping. But I still maintain that there will be people of staff preserving history on their own. I am an archivist today and I know many people working for government institutions who are quietly preserving materials “just in case.”
THIS. I don’t think we’re “sliding” into anything. We’re already at the bottom the slide with our legs and butt burnt from 99 degree temps and getting caught on the sharp metal pieces.
Yes Lise! Those librarians and museum curators are going to save us and keep hope and the truth alive!
What’s stopping it from all being put back once this asshat is out of office? He’s so hellbent on erasing history as if he can just wipe our minds or, ya know, the internet. We all remember what happened.
Oh and none of us will ever forget Jan 6th no matter how hard he tries.
You’re right of course. But it’s surreal that I was just talking to my husband about the ministry of truth in the novel 1984, and the thought police, and I hadn’t even heard this story yet. We were talking about him firing the person that gave jobs numbers today that he wasn’t happy about. My husband has never read it, I told him he needs to asap. And then I click on this story and see your comment and *shudder* at the parallels
The Insurrection was a foretelling of what was to come from official channels if he were re-elected. And some folks voted for it.
The Antebellum South, Reconstruction, and Redemption (another instance of newspeak) is rarely covered in K-12, and when it is it isn’t covered truthfully.
The Redemption period lasted from 1877-mid 1960s. It was laws and policies in the South and policies and practice in the elsewhere. Project 2025 is about reinstating Redemption formally throughout the entire USA, and if possible beyond. People need to read up on Redemption history to fully understand the administration’s goals.
I went to some of the best schools in the country, and the only things I was taught about the period between 1865 to 1945 are: Railroad, Custer, Jazz, Babe Ruth, Stock Market Crash, and WW2. The more you ask, the less they want you to know.
I did not learn fully about all of the atrocities that we did to our indigenous people until my last semester in college (a SOC class with emphasis on minorities) in 2010 (I graduated from hs in 1980). And I have always lived in a blue state and in a very blue area (school district). It should be a graduation requirement for every high school student to take a course like this.
Here is the secret, in general, the myth is in the required courses and the truth is in the electives.
All those truths were let in through the DEI door, which is why the administration is working to close and cement is shut.
All the histories that came through the DEI door has one or two chapters of state sanctioned sterilization done for the state by medical professionals. Poor, Black, Native, Disable, etc . . .
Sometimes the method of erasure include child theft away from their culture to be trained as servants for the power-dominant class.
Re: “the only things I was taught” — When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
How utterly dreadful. Damn!
Such a disgrace!
“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.”
― George Orwell, 1984
The orange menace may be able to bully ppl at the moment, but history will never forget or erase the evilness that is all things trump. Idk if it was specifically the Smithsonian, but a lot of museums were sending memorabilia and artifacts back to the ppl who donated them and told them to hold onto them for safe keeping because they knew the orange one would destroy them.
We all still know the truth and what happened . They can’t erase what is in our brains and hearts.
And what’s tucked away in our attics and in our personal archives. A couple of years ago, I spoke with people at organizations in the area who might be interested in things that my Mom saved among her papers — including things like a picture given to her by a very cute Tuskegee Airman! I’m glad, now, that I wasn’t up for the job of sorting things at the time. Some of those treasures— like an issue of Crisis magazine featuring a picture of the adorable toddler who eventually grew up to be my Mom — might be safer with me for now.
I did not learn fully about all of the atrocities that we did to our indigenous people until my last semester in college (a SOC class with emphasis on minorities) in 2010 (I graduated from hs in 1980). And I have always lived in a blue state and in a very blue area (school district). It should be a graduation requirement for every high school student to take a course like this.
“Because the other topics in this section had not been updated since 2008, the decision was made to restore the Impeachment case back to its 2008 appearance.”
— LOL wut.
We need an impeachment that bites.
Yeah, that does not pass the red face test. I’d hate to have that person for my boss.