President Donald Trump's attack on Smithsonian institutions and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiative continues on Friday. The president declared the truth society and was firing Kim Sajet, director of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and accusing her of being a "highly partisan".
"At the request and advice of many people, I terminated Kim Sajet's employment as director of the National Portrait Gallery," Trump wrote in his post. "She is a very partisan and a staunch supporter of Dei, which is completely unsuitable for her position. Her replacement will soon be named."
Whether the president has the right to terminate Sajet because the gallery runs within the Smithsonian agency’s terms of reference.
Representatives from the National Portrait Gallery or Smithsonians did not respond immediately Rolling stonesMake a request for comment.
According to her biography on the National Portrait Gallery website, Sajet was the first woman to be the director of the Smithsonian Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., before that, she was the president and CEO of the Penn Historical Society, Vice President and Vice President of Pennsylvania, Vice President of Pennsylvania and Curator of Coobe Art, and the company of Pennsylvania.
In February, Trump appointed the president of the John Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which led to a series of news and artist cancellations and canceled the issue after the news - a month later, the president announced his executive order from the Smithsonian Learned to eliminate "anti-American ideology." Trump ordered that Vice President JD Vance would be banned and directed to lead the vice president within the agency to spend on exhibitions or programs that “share American values, programs or ideologies based on race or ideology.”
Smithsonian spans 21 museums and, according to its website, is the world's largest museum, education and research complex, including 14 education and research centers and the National Zoo. The National Portrait Gallery currently hosts an exhibition with photos of each U.S. president and a 2017 photo taken by Matt McClain in 2017, with Kehinde Wiley's popular Barack Obama paintings and Donald Trump's photos. The Senate made a historic comeback in the 2024 election after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.
When talking to the guardian last year, Sajet was the daughter of a Dutch immigrant who was born in Nigeria and raised in Australia, a Dutch citizen, reflected in the role in the gallery. "I have a great love for America, which is home to me, but I do think there is a real advantage to be able to back off," Saget said. "Maybe part of my advantage is that it actually starts with the effect of having this chain reaction. It's always a good thing to remind Americans of the huge gift they've given us all."
She added: “I am very proud to be part of the American Portrait Gallery because there are some outstanding people who have changed needles not only in the U.S. but globally.”