In a nation perpetually negotiating the distance between its ideals and its history, Donald Trump has publicly demanded that the Smithsonian Institution erect a 30-foot statue of George Washington in place of an existing sculpture, framing the request as a corrective to what he sees as the museum's overemphasis on narratives of oppression. The demand arrives at a moment when American cultural institutions are actively reconsidering whose stories belong at the center of the national memory. At stake is a question older than the republic itself: who holds the authority to decide how a people rem