The New York Times (NYT) and the Washington Post (WP) reported on the 10th that when the portrait of President Donald Trump on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. was replaced, the description of the portrait removed any mention of the fact that Trump was impeached twice during his first term.
According to the report, the National Portrait Gallery changed the text introducing Trump on the wall next to the portrait when it replaced the portrait in the “American Presidents” section on the 8th. The previous text mentioned that Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices during his first term (2017-2021), promoted the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, and made a “historic return (to the presidency)” through the 2024 presidential election, along with the fact that he was impeached twice during his first term.
The House of Representatives, then under the Democratic majority, voted in December 2019 to impeach President Trump for pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, by offering military aid to him.
In January 2021, they voted for a second impeachment of President Trump, holding him responsible for the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters who refused to accept the 2020 presidential election results. This gave President Trump the dishonor of having been impeached twice by the House during his presidency, but both times the articles of impeachment failed to reach the two-thirds majority required in the Senate, thus avoiding removal from office.
The description of the newly replaced portrait of President Trump only stated that he was the 45th and 47th President of the United States, and that he was born in 1946.
Last July, the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., also removed information about the two articles of impeachment against President Trump from its permanent exhibition. In response to a New York Times inquiry about the removal of the description of President Trump’s impeachment, the National Portrait Gallery stated that it had been exploring options for providing only general information, such as the artist’s name, when creating some new exhibitions, adding, “The history of presidential impeachment will continue to be reflected in our museum.”