The Smithsonian American Women's History Museum was established in 2020 by an act of Congress, during Trump's first term. A current bill to secure the location was sponsored by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) and had the bipartisan support of Democrats and Republicans. However, when the bill was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote on Thursday, it failed to secure enough votes for passage. The reasons why are as stupid as you would expect.
This type of nonsense is why President Donald Trump wanted to fund the White House Ballroom himself and not involve Congress.
Both sides of the aisle came together Thursday to oppose what had been a decade-long bipartisan effort to build a women’s history museum in Washington.
The legislation, which specified the museum’s site, was nearing the finish line but lost dozens of Democrats who had supported it just a month ago. It failed in the afternoon on a 204-216 vote, in which six Republicans joined all Democrats in voting no. Eight other Republicans did not vote.
Those six: Reps. Keith Self (TX-03), Josh Brecheen (OK-02), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Warren Davidson (OH-08), Andy Harris (MD-01), and Tim Burchett (TN-02), all members of the Freedom Caucus, and all opposed to the bill's passage. Some objected on the grounds that it was a waste to have a "women only" museum at all.
Among the Republican opponents, some conservatives simply disapproved of a museum focused on women at all.
“We say we need to unite this country, but then we isolate every group,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who was among several from the conservative Freedom Caucus who voted against it.
Republican Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15) helped lead some of the changes, adding an amendment barring transgender displays.
Initially presented as a step toward securing the museum’s location, the legislation was revised during a committee vote last month in several ways.
One change added a mission scope that states, “The Museum shall be dedicated to preserving, researching, and presenting the history, achievements, and lived experiences of biological women in the United States.”
It also adds a prohibition which states, “The Museum may not identify, present, describe, or otherwise depict any biological male as a female.”
Another change added specific detail about where the museum would be located on the mall — near 14th Street Southwest and Jefferson Drive, “except that the President may designate an alternative site for the Museum within 180 days of the date of the enactment of this subsection.”
Transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (DE-At Large) was obviously opposed. After all, with those restrictions, he'd have no chance of being recognized for "her" HIStory.
“Celebrating women is not, and should not be, a zero-sum game,” Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first openly transgender member in Congress, said Thursday before voting against the measure. “Allowing Donald Trump to decide what goes in and where this museum — this necessary museum — is located is not something that members of our caucus are comfortable with.”
Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-05), another Democrat who is part of the Women's Caucus, accused: “It was a simple bill. You kind of ruined it with your trans obsession and your culture wars.”
Recent GOP revisions to the bill prompted scores of Democrats to speak out against the legislation in its current form, saying they would not vote for it as it stood.
The legislation, authored in February 2025 by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., had as many as 231 co-sponsors, including 127 Democrats.
“It’s disappointing that politics got in the way of a women’s history museum getting built but, sadly, it’s a clear indication of just how polarizing Washington has become,” Malliotakis said in a statement after the vote.
The Democrat brain trust of the Women's Caucus considered the failure to pass the bill as a win.
🚨DWC WIN ALERT🚨
— Democratic Women's Caucus (@DemWomenCaucus) May 21, 2026
Today, the House of Representatives rejected the Republican, partisan version of the women's museum bill.
The Republican version would have handed the keys of the women's history museum to Trump. A museum about women, built by women, should not be controlled… pic.twitter.com/bw60a9eFRh
🚨DWC WIN ALERT🚨
Today, the House of Representatives rejected the Republican, partisan version of the women's museum bill.
The Republican version would have handed the keys of the women's history museum to Trump. A museum about women, built by women, should not be controlled by one man and his political allies.
We will not stop fighting to honor women's history. Let's get back to the bipartisan bill.
What Democrat women continually fail to realize is that they are precipitating their own demise. After all, a party that refuses to define what a woman is will eventually marginalize and remove anything that affirms the biological existence of women at all.
Bet.
Many House Democratic women are wearing white outfits in a nod to the suffragette movement.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 25, 2026
The Democrats have worn this color to most of Trump’s joint addresses to Congress as a form of protest. https://t.co/DxmoF7knuT pic.twitter.com/3PgxhzDfFb
Read More: PA Democrats Celebrate Women's Month by Silently Opting Out of Defining Women
Dylan Mulvaney Set to Make Broadway Debut in Women's History Musical
Why do we even need a Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum? Isn’t a simple American History Museum enough? That should cover everyone (except Democrats of course. They aren’t Americans). pic.twitter.com/L5vFXFtzHJ
— Chris Plante Show (@ChrisPlanteShow) May 22, 2026
I have no idea who Chris Plante is, but there's an entire movement that not only agrees that a museum dedicated to American women in history is a waste of time and money, but contends that any form of women's representation should be eliminated, including the right to vote.
It's becoming a thing, and it's not just the men who are having it.
Feminism will end and Patriarchy will return because it has to. The question is how bad things will get first, and how uncomfortable the transition will be. https://t.co/uNdXV3KocY
— Rachel Wilson (@Rach4Patriarchy) May 22, 2026
No doubt the Democrats are waiting until after November, when they hope to take control of the House of Representatives, to bring the bill again without Trump's fingerprints or the poison pill of biological reality being shoved down their throats.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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