Was a George Floyd statue located at the National Mall or the "Smithsonian Institute" in Washington, D.C., dismantled and "put in storage"? No, that's not true: The rumor that resurfaced on the internet in August 2025 came from the self-described "network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery". The image accompanying the claim showed a George Floyd statue in Newark, New Jersey.
The claim reappeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on August 12, 2025. An image attached to it read:
The George Floyd statue at the Smithsonian Institute on the National Mall has been dismantied and put in storageAmerica is leaving the woke era behind.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of a post by the America's Last Line of Defense account on Facebook.com)
The mention of the "Smithsonian Institute" from the August 12, 2025, post likely referred to the Smithsonian Institution, which is, according to its website, "the world's largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums, 14 education and research centers, and the National Zoo". Eleven of those museums are located along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. While Lead Stories found some items dedicated to George Floyd on display there, the specific statue from the post was never anywhere close to the national capital.
The claim has been online since at least February of 2025, when it was published (archived here) by the Dunning-Kruger Times website. At the time, Lead Stories established that the image of the artwork from social media posts showed a George Floyd statue in Newark, New Jersey, but not in Washington, D.C.
In the images taken in June 2025, that statue (archived here) was still seen (archived here) in front of the local City Hall. As of August 14, 2025, no credible media organizations have published reports about removal of it.
As of August 14, 2025, neither the website of the National Park Service nor its saved versions say anything about any George Floyd statues on the National Mall. A spokesperson for the National Park Service previously told Lead Stories that they "never erected" a statue of George Floyd at that location.
The About section (archived here) on the Dunning-Kruger Times website, where the claim initially appeared, reads:
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":
sat·ire ˈsaˌtī(ə)r noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
The post from August 2025 reviewed in this fact check was also published by one of the pages associated with "America's Last Line of Defense", the same network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine and his allies. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
