Why Does Donald Trump Hate This Sculpture?

The sculpture that Donald Trump wants removed from the National Mall has a reputation even among its admirers for being a bit inscrutable.

Dedicated in 1967 at what is now the National Museum of American History, José de Rivera’s Infinity looks, fittingly, like an infinity symbol with an extra twist. (A bow? A pretzel?) By pairing the technical prowess required to create smooth, curved metal with the delicate spinning of a music box, the slow-turning work seems to take a different form each time you pass it.

The museum’s architect, Walker O.

Cain, wrote that Infinity “has the characteristic of stimulating everyone who has seen it to create his own personal imaginative interpretation.” But the president does not appear to have been stimulated.

“That strange modernist sculpture tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday night.

Trump insisted that the Smithsonian replace Infinity with a 30-foot high “Colossus” of George Washington.

In the same post, he called for the mounting of a five-year exhibition about the Founding Father to open immediately (museum shows of such magnitude typically take years to plan), and said the museum should create a “Center for American Heroes.” Trump also wrote that the institution should add another, 11-foot-tall Washington statue to the museum’s Flag Hall.

That one was displayed at the Grand Prix race held in Washington, D.C., this summer as part of Trump’s Freedom 250 festivities.

He’d like it dedicated at the museum this Thursday.

Trump’s latest demands might be partially understood as a test of how far he can push an institution that he does not control.

They came just three days after the Smithsonian’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch, announced his upcoming retirement, following a year and a half of standing between the museum complex and the White House.

In a July executive order, the president called on the National Park Service, which is part of the executive branch, to place signs outside the National Museum of American History accusing it of partisan bias.

Few would question the appropriateness of having a healthy amount of George Washington in an American-history museum, but Trump’s ask might be a little too redundant.

For one thing, a Washington sculpture can already be found on the museum’s second floor.