22 minNov 20, 2025

Trump Is Gutting DC’s Coolest Secret Museum

Show Notes

You’ve probably never heard of the Wilbur J. Cohen federal building. It’s a government office building just off the Mall houses a collection of masterpieces of American art. Some of them are literally part of the building, murals by the legendary 1930s artist Ben Shahn. For decades, they’ve been open to the public, not that most people knew about them. Now, they might be destroyed: The Cohen building is one of the structures that the Trump administration wants to sell off, and its likely a buyer would take a wrecking ball to the place, timeless art and all. The New Republic’s Timothy Noah has been chronicling the collection’s fate and he’s here to tell us about it.

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