President Donald Trump is pressing the Smithsonian Institution to remove a landmark modernist sculpture from outside the National Museum of American History and replace it with a 30-foot statue of George Washington, escalating an ongoing fight over art, history and the presentation of American identity at the nation’s museums.

The proposed “Washington Colossus” would take the place of “Infinity,” José de Rivera’s polished stainless-steel abstract sculpture at the museum’s Mall entrance. Trump described the work as a “strange modernist sculpture” and argued that a monumental representation of Washington would better communicate the country’s history to visitors.

The demand is part of a broader Washington-centered proposal. Trump has also called for the Smithsonian to install an existing 11-foot statue of the first president inside the museum’s Flag Hall by Constitution Day on Sept. 17. Separately, he wants the National Museum of American History to establish an exhibition devoted to Washington that would continue through Feb. 22, 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.

With Constitution Day approaching, the immediate question is whether the Smithsonian will act on the requested indoor installation. The larger outdoor replacement would require a substantially more consequential decision because “Infinity” has been associated with the museum’s architecture and public entrance for nearly six decades. As of Sept. 15, no publicly announced Smithsonian commitment to remove the sculpture and construct the proposed 30-foot Washington figure had been identified in the institution’s public materials.

“Infinity” was installed in 1967, when the museum was known as the Museum of History and Technology. Smithsonian archival records describe the stainless-steel composition as the first contemporary sculpture on the National Mall and, at the time, the largest piece of contemporary sculpture commissioned by the federal government. The work consists of a curved ribbon-like form mounted above a black granite base and designed to rotate slowly.

The sculpture itself measures roughly 16 feet long and 8 feet high, according to Smithsonian records, while the complete installation including its pedestal rises considerably higher. Its kinetic design distinguishes it from the figurative statues, military monuments and memorials more commonly associated with monumental Washington. A Smithsonian account of the work’s history describes its installation as part of a period when architects and federal cultural planners were incorporating contemporary art into major public buildings.

That history makes the dispute significant within the art world. Removing “Infinity” would not merely exchange one decorative object for another. It would replace a surviving example of mid-20th-century federal modernism with a deliberately representational monument to a founding-era political figure. The two works embody sharply different traditions of public art: one abstract and open-ended, the other commemorative and explicitly historical.

Trump’s position is that Washington deserves substantially greater prominence in the museum during the United States’ 250th-anniversary period. In announcing the proposal, he criticized what he sees as insufficient emphasis on Washington and other founders and said the museum should more directly celebrate figures central to the nation’s founding.

The Smithsonian, however, is not structured like a conventional executive-branch department. The institution was created by Congress and is overseen by a Board of Regents that includes the vice president, the chief justice of the United States, members of Congress and citizen regents. The Associated Press noted that this arrangement makes it unclear how directly a president can compel the Smithsonian to make a particular curatorial or installation decision.

The administration nevertheless has several avenues for influence. Trump signed an executive order in March 2025 setting out his administration’s approach to historical presentation at federal sites and the Smithsonian. The order directed Vice President JD Vance to work through his position on the Smithsonian Board of Regents and called for coordination with Congress over future Smithsonian appropriations. That framework means disagreements over exhibitions can become questions not only of curatorial independence but also of governance and federal funding.

The Washington statue proposal arrives during a period of leadership transition as well. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch has announced plans to step down at the end of the year. Bunch, a historian who became Smithsonian secretary in 2019 after serving as founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has led the institution during increasingly public debates over how national museums address race, inequality, patriotism and the country’s founding.

Trump’s latest proposal also extends beyond a single museum entrance. He has repeatedly promoted figurative monuments to prominent Americans as part of his approach to Washington’s civic landscape. The administration has supported plans for a National Garden of American Heroes, while Trump has argued that federal museums should place greater emphasis on national achievement and traditional historical figures.

For museums and arts organizations, the “Infinity” controversy illustrates how decisions about public art can become entangled with larger arguments about historical interpretation. Supporters of traditional commemorative monuments can view recognizable national figures as more accessible and culturally meaningful than abstraction. Modernist works such as de Rivera’s, meanwhile, are valued in part because they reflect the artistic ideas, materials and architectural ambitions of the period in which they were commissioned.

The proposed Washington statue also remains, at this stage, more a presidential demand than a completed museum project. Public reporting has not established a final design, fabrication schedule, construction contract or formal Smithsonian approval for the 30-foot work. Trump said the larger statue should be installed once it is ready, distinguishing it from his much nearer Sept. 17 target for the existing 11-foot Washington statue inside the museum.

That distinction will become important as the Smithsonian determines how to respond. Moving or removing a decades-old outdoor artwork, designing and producing a monumental replacement and changing a major entrance on the National Mall could involve institutional, preservation, design and logistical considerations beyond the political request itself.

For now, “Infinity” remains outside the National Museum of American History, where its polished surface and slow rotation continue to face visitors arriving from the Mall. The coming days will show whether the Smithsonian makes the requested Constitution Day change inside the museum. The fate of the outdoor sculpture—and the proposed three-story-high Washington monument that Trump wants in its place—remains unresolved.