National Portrait Gallery

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to lead the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one,” Sajet wrote in a note to staff shared in an email by the Smithsonian Institution’s leader, Lonnie Bunch.

The Smithsonian Institution asserted its independence Monday evening in a statement that could be read as a rejection of President Trump’s late-May firing of National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet.

President Trump declared the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI” as he announced her firing on Truth Social.

President Trump declared the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI” as he announced her firing on Truth Social.

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is firing Kim Sajet, the longtime director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, for being “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI.”