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Democratic Maryland representative Jamie Raskin, a dogged antagonist to President Donald Trump who attempted to have him removed from office, has introduced legislation directing the Smithsonian Institution to preserve “artifacts reflecting the rise of government propaganda, corruption, and authoritarianism” during Trump’s two terms and place them in a permanent exhibition at the National Museum of American History (NMAH), a museum in the nation’s capital that is part of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Preserving and Remembering the History of Trump and other Tyrants Act comes partly in response to Trump’s order last month to have the Department of the Interior place signs outside NMAH, warning visitors that the curators express “personal, radical ideologies” in their galleries. The legislation also instructs officials from the National Park Service to remove any such signage installed without Congressional approval.
“Unlike President Trump’s project of censoring, whitewashing and fictionalizing American history, my legislation will forever preserve his manifestations of authoritarian narcissism and his propagandistic assault on American history and American democracy,” said Raskin in press materials. “To avoid repeating this descent into authoritarianism, we must study this corrupt President’s actions and allow the public to learn about the numerous tools he deployed while attempting to remake American history in his own image and according to his own autocratic and white nationalist beliefs.”
Trump has also hung massive banners bearing his scowling face on some federal buildings; Raskin’s bill directs Smithsonian staff to preserve them as well, along with media footage; the stories of Americans who “resisted and opposed the rise in authoritarianism in the United States”; and whatever else the Smithsonian’s secretary believes to be historically significant.
Neither the Smithsonian nor NMAH immediately responded to a request for comment.
Trump has long targeted the Smithsonian, a federal consortium of cultural and research institutions. It began, during his second term, with a March 2025 executive order targeting “divisive” and “anti-American” content in its exhibitions and calling for the restoration of “monuments, memorials, statues, [and] markers” that had been removed from public spaces since 2020. His persecution has continued up until now; last month, the administration accused the Smithsonian of discrimination and threatened to cut federal grants.
There is a pungent irony to Raskin’s legislation, as NMAH has been a particular focus for Trump, and its exhibitions have at least once softened their assessment of his presidency, reportedly under White House direction. In July 2025, the museum removed references to the two impeachments he suffered during his first term after a content review undertaken “following pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director,” as the Washington Post reported at the time. The museum soon restored the placard with fewer details. Raskin drafted articles of impeachment against Trump within hours of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and served as the lead House impeachment manager during his second Senate trial, arguing that Trump incited a violent insurrection against the Constitution. The trial ended in a 57–43 vote to convict, falling short of the two-thirds threshold required.
Raskin’s bill comes amid strident debate over all three accusations leveled by Raskin, of “propaganda, corruption, and authoritarianism.” Regarding propaganda, there’s the debate over the White House illegally using $20 million in taxpayer funds to broadcast what are essentially campaign ads, during an election season, that boast of Trump’s accomplishments, to the tune of R&B singer Christian Berishaj (aka JMSN) singing his song “Love Me.” (The singer has issued a cease-and-desist letter.) Regarding corruption, the New York Times reported in July that in 2025, revenue from the president’s business holdings soared to $2.24 billion, expanding “primarily in areas in which he wields immense power and influence, like cryptocurrency.” And as regards authoritarianism, Trump recently was ordered by a judge to restore press access to reporters from Politico, CNN, and MS NOW after specifically banning them due to the content of their coverage, in violation of the First Amendment.