Donald Trump fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery on Friday, claiming she was “highly partisan,” as the US president pushes his plan to remake the country’s cultural institutions.
The sacking of Kim Sajet, whose publicly funded museum in Washington is home to paintings of key figures in American history, is the latest broadside against an arts world the Republican views as hostile and in thrall to his Democratic Party opponents.
“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,” Trump wrote Truth Social.
“She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position,” he added, referring to “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The firing is the first concrete action Trump has taken against the Smithsonian Insitution — a grouping of museums in the US capital — since he issued an executive order promising to rid cultural bodies of “divisive narratives” and “anti-American ideology.”
Sajet, who was born in Nigeria and raised in Australia, is a Dutch national, as well as a seasoned specialist in portraiture, who has led the National Portrait Gallery since 2013.
The Smithsonian Institution, founded nearly two centuries ago, is a Washington mainstay whose 21 museums are largely dedicated to US history and culture.
With free entry, they are a tourist favorite, sitting on the edges of the National Mall, a green esplanade that links the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, close to the White House.
Friday’s firing, which comes as the Trump administration is engaged in a battle with elite universities like Harvard, follows the president seeking to remake the Kennedy Center, a performing arts venue, by reorganizing its board of directors.
