President Donald Trump said on Friday afternoon that he had fired Kim Sajet, director of Washington, D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery. It is now unclear who will lead the museum, one of many run by the Smithsonian Institution, a museum network Trump has targeted since returning the presidency in January.
“Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by the Trump Media & Technology Group. “She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly.”
Sajet has led the National Portrait Gallery since 2013. Prior to that role, she had served as director and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and as deputy director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Right now, the museum has an exhibition called “America’s Presidents” that features images of people who have led this country, from Elaine de Kooning’s painting of John F. Kennedy to Gilbert Stuart’s images of George Washington. She told the Guardian last year, “I don’t want by reading the label to get a sense of what the curator’s opinion is about that person. I want someone reading the label to understand that it’s based on historical fact.”
At the time, the Guardian reported that the presentation included a portrait of Trump that came with a caption noting that he had been “impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Trump’s statement did not mention what had prompted her firing. The National Portrait Gallery did not respond to ARTnews’s request for comment at press time.
In addition to the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution also manages the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Both of those institutions were singled out by Trump in an executive order in March that focused on “anti-American ideology” at Smithsonian-run museums.
“Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” the executive order read. “This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
In January, Trump signed an executive order calling for an end to federal DEI programs. Shortly after the signing of the order, the Smithsonian began winding down the operations of its DEI department.
After the March executive order was issued, media reports noted that the NMAAHC’s director, Kevin Young, had been quietly placed on leave for an “undetermined period.” He officially left his role in April.
