Trump Demands ‘Strange Modernist’ Sculpture Be Replaced by George Washington Statue

President Donald Trump has released his latest list of demands for the Smithsonian Institution, beginning with the installation of a monumental statue of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History.

In a flurry of Truth Social posts late Friday, Trump also called for an exhibition honoring the nation’s first president to open imminently and run through February 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth. The statue, Trump said, should be erected on September 17, Constitution Day in the United States. Standing at 11 feet, the work was featured at the recent Freedom 250 IndyCar race in the museum’s Flag Hall.

Writing en route to his golf course in Ireland, Trump also called for a 30-foot statue of Washington to replace Infinity, a kinetic sculpture by New York artist José de Rivera, dedicated by the federal government in 1967 and currently located at the south entrance of the National Museum of American History. 

“Replace a sculpture that says nothing about America with the man who, more than anyone else, says everything about America,” Trump said, describing Washington as “easily America’s Greatest Hero. Without him, our Country and our Freedoms wouldn’t exist.”

Infinity was the first work of modern art commissioned by the US government under the Art and Architecture Program for the National Mall. The sculpture sits atop a black granite base and forms a ribbon of polished stainless steel that has continuously rotated since its dedication, completing one revolution every six minutes. De Rivera, whose sculptures mark public spaces across the United States, died in 1985.

“That strange modernist sculpture tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes,” Trump said.

In a separate post, the president accused the Smithsonian of failing to “give George Washington and our other Founding Fathers the celebration they deserve,” on the 250th anniversary of the nation’s independence. “Washington’s Heroic Crossing of the Delaware on December 25, 1776 — One of the greatest moments and turning points of the Revolution — is not even mentioned in the Museum,” he said.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has several objects in its collection depicting Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, including a colored print by Thomas Kelly; a colored print based on Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous 1850 painting; an 1853 engraving titled Washington Crossing the Delaware, also based on Leutze’s painting; and a 2021 US quarter depicting Washington rallying his troops to cross the river. 

It is unclear whether Trump has the authority to remove Infinity, since the Smithsonian operates independently of the executive branch. However, federal funds make up a significant portion of its annual budget, and it is overseen by a Board of Regents that includes Vice President JD Vance, who has spearheaded the Trump administration’s intervention in the museum network’s operations.

Trump has repeatedly bypassed the congressional approval traditionally required to fundamentally change the Capitol’s cultural landscape. A divided Supreme Court recently allowed his ballroom project, which would replace the East Wing, to proceed, with the dissenting justices describing its construction as “likely unlawful.” Meanwhile, a towering sculpture by Joel Shapiro that had been on view at the Kennedy Center since 2019, when the artist gave it to the center as a gift, was dismantled. 

The Kennedy Center did not explain why it removed the work. Shapiro’s daughter told the Times that the artist would have been “alarmed” by the removal. The Shapiro work, a blue, stick-like figure, was ultimately purchased by the center’s former chairman, David Rubenstein.

Trump’s demand came days after Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III announced his retirement. For more than a year, Bunch and the Trump administration have clashed over accusations that the Smithsonian was presenting an unflattering view of American history—claims Bunch rejected, saying the institution’s exhibitions were grounded in rigorous scholarship.

“Under recently ended leadership, the Smithsonian created a ‘Center for Restorative History,’ and commissioned a ‘Decolonization Plan,’ to focus attention overwhelmingly on those who have been oppressed, but there is almost no attention paid to those who triumphed over great oppression, and against great odds,” Trump posted on Friday.

“One current exhibit describes the period of 1492 to 1776, including Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the New World, and the European settlement of America, as the ‘Great Unsettling’ of the Continent,” he said, adding, “That tells you all you need to know about how twisted the thinking is today at the Smithsonian.”