Trump Claims to Sack Director of National Portrait Gallery
President Donald Trump on May 30 took to his Truth social media platform to announce that he had fired Kim Sajet, who since 2013 has served as director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. “Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby [sic] terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” wrote the president. “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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Sajet is the first woman to lead the National Portrait Gallery. Established by Congressional decree in 1962, the gallery is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is charged with highlighting individuals who have made important contributions to the development of the US and its culture. Though the Smithsonian receives funding through Congress, it operates outside the auspices of the federal government and is not controlled by the executive branch, its status raising the question of whether the president is legally allowed to hire and fire its staff.
Among the National Portrait Gallery’s holdings of roughly 26,000 objects is a complete collection of presidential portraits, the only one outside the White House. The New York Times notes that following Trump’s 2021 departure from the White House, the gallery displayed a 2017 photograph of the president accompanied by text that read in part, “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.”
“We try very much not to editorialize,” Sajet told The Guardian in 2024. “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.”
