Donald Trump has asked the Smithsonian Institution to install a 30ft "Colossus statue" of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History, along with a special exhibit honoring the nation's first president. Because nothing says "humble reverence for history" like a giant bronze strongman looming over the Mall.

The president requested that the exhibit continue through February 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington's birth. "He is easily America's Greatest Hero. Without him, our Country and our Freedoms wouldn't exist," Trump posted on Truth Social as he flew to his golf course in Ireland. Nothing says "America First" like a transatlantic golf trip.

The statue of Washington would replace the current Infinity sculpture by New York artist José de Rivera, commissioned by the federal government and installed in 1967. So long, abstract modernism - hello, literal strongman.

Trump's latest request underscores a perception that he sees himself as curator-in-chief of the nation's national museum. His administration issued a 162-page report in March 2025 accusing the museum of focusing too much on oppression, social justice and division rather than shared national achievements. In July, Trump ordered the interior department to display signs in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History that accuse the institution of inaccuracy. The order declared signs outside the museum "shall notify visitors that the museum exhibits should be renovated consistent with the findings in the report." Those signs have yet to appear. Perhaps they're waiting for their own statue.

In Friday's post, Trump complained that the Smithsonian currently doesn't mention Washington's fabled crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War, which he called "one of the greatest moments and turning points of the Revolution." Nor, he said, was Washington's victory at Trenton mentioned. "Stories of the Americans who fought and died for our Independence, deserve far more attention," he wrote. Instead of a Center for Restorative History - a recently ended museum initiative to spotlight stories that have been excluded from the national historical narrative - Trump said the museum should have a "Center for American Heroes." Because nuance is so last century.

But it is not clear that Trump has the power to order the museum to make the change. The Smithsonian operates outside the executive branch and its leadership is overseen by a board of regents that includes JD Vance, Chief Justice John Roberts, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and a group of citizens. Last week, the Smithsonian's secretary, Lonnie Bunch, announced he will step down by the end of the year, after seven years leading the institution. "We're at a time when people are challenging that independence," Bunch earlier told the Washington Post. "but I feel very strongly that it is as independent as we were before, and that I will continue to fight - for as long as I'm in this chair - for the independence of the Smithsonian."

The administration appears to be expanding its reach into arts and culture. For Constitution Day on 17 September, Trump asked the Smithsonian to install the 11ft statue of Washington featured at the recent Freedom 250 IndyCar race in the museum's Flag Hall. The board of the Kennedy Center, comprised largely of Trump appointees, recently removed Blue, a sculpture by the late New York artist Joel Shapiro, which had been on the grounds of the center since 2019. There had been no public announcement or consultation ahead of its removal. Statues are a consistent theme in Trump's many efforts to remake Washington - including a proposal for a "Garden of Heroes" along the Potomac River to display statues of 250 prominent Americans - and he has installed a statue of Washington in the recently remodeled Rose Garden patio.

But art in two dimensions is also included in the effort. Last month, the state department said it is contemplating selling a painting by Kehinde Wiley that it removed from the US embassy in the Dominican Republic. The canvas, titled Young Artists after Siamesas 1960, features two young Dominican women standing, flanked by two seated male counterparts. It was commissioned from Wiley - who went on to paint Barack Obama's official portrait - in 2013. Erin Scavino, the director of Art in Embassies, called the painting "very woke", adding that "it was by the gentleman who did Obama's portrait, and it was aesthetically terrifying." Because nothing says diplomacy like calling art "terrifying."