President Trump posted on social media on Friday that he had fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, calling her “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position.”
It is unclear if the president has legal grounds to fire the director, Kim Sajet, because the National Portrait Gallery is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which is independent of the federal government despite receiving nearly two-thirds of its budget from Congress.
The museum’s bylaws don’t have a provision for terminations, and some legal experts believe that the president would first need approval from the Smithsonian’s board of trustees, because he does not directly control the organization. However, this year he called on Vice President JD Vance, who is a member of the Smithsonian’s board, to work with Congress to overhaul the institution.
A Smithsonian official said the organization was caught off-guard by the president’s announcement but declined to comment further. The National Portrait Gallery did not respond to a request for comment.
Since returning to office in January, Mr. Trump has reshaped the capital’s arts scene, installing himself as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
After he quickly signed an executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federally funded institutions, organizations like the Smithsonian closed their diversity offices. The National Gallery of Art changed its mission statement by replacing “diversity, equity, access and inclusion” with “welcoming and accessible.”
Sajet, who has served as the National Portrait Gallery’s director for more than 12 years after a long career working in the arts sector, previously said that she has struggled with the question of who is and is not represented in the museum.
In 2022, she told The New York Times that the collection tilted toward “the wealthy, the pale and the male.” She attempted to bring more contemporary artists into the gallery, and some of their work has commented on political issues like immigration and race.
“The question is how do you show the presence of absence?” Sajet said at the time. “How do we actually signal that there are a whole lot of people and voices and opinions missing?”
Suse Anderson, a museum studies professor at George Washington University, said the administration’s scrutiny of a Smithsonian museum would have far-reaching implications.
She said the president’s announcement on Friday “continues and escalates the attacks on institutions of history and culture that we’ve seen since the start of this administration.”
“It is designed,” she continued, “to disempower and discredit those who are working within these institutions to tell a more complete and complex American story.”
Founded by congressional decree nearly 60 years ago, the National Portrait Gallery has a mission to showcase “individuals who have made significant contributions to the history, development and culture of the people of the United States.” The gallery has a federal budget of about $23 million, according to the Smithsonian’s website, and a collection of nearly 26,000 objects that attract about two million visitors per year.
The museum is perhaps best known for hosting the nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside of the White House. It drew large crowds in 2018 for the paintings of Barack and Michelle Obama by the artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald.
After Mr. Trump left office in 2021, the museum exhibited a photographed portrait of him that was taken by Matt McClain in 2017. The biographical description that was included caught the eye of some viewers.
“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,” the text said in part. “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election.”
Zachary Small is a Times reporter writing about the art world’s relationship to money, politics and technology.
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