WASHINGTON — The former director of the National Portrait Gallery, who has been removed from her job, openly pushed diversity, equity, and inclusion from her position as head of a top United States museum.
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Kim Sajet was removed from her position, accusing Sajet of being “a highly partisan person” and “a strong supporter of DEI.”
“Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” the president said. “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, a long time Democrat donor, has served since 2013 as the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, which contains 1,700 portraits of United States presidents and is located less than a mile away from the White House itself. A review of her remarks to media show that she was heavily focused on promoting and highlighting art based on ideology.
“Are the categories sexist, ableist, racist?” Sajet said in one Washington Post interview as she discussed the National Portrait Gallery’s “language justice.” “How can we be respectful of communities that have been hurt and continue to be hurt? How do we be inclusive?”
Her LinkedIn profile described the National Portrait Gallery as “not just a place to see famous Americans,” but a place that “explores identity as a social construct that has been shaped in equal measure by opportunity & ability, prejudice & fear, by taking a cross-disciplinary approach.”
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She was also in charge of the gallery’s “America’s Presidents” exhibit with labels summing up each man in about 140 words. She told the Guardian in late 2024 that “we try very much not to editorialise,” claiming, “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.”
Yet the caption under Trump’s photo reads, 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. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
(Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Sajet’s firing comes after Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” a March 27 order that promised to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness –- igniting the imagination of young minds, honoring the richness of American history and innovation, and instilling pride in the hearts of all Americans.”
“Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” the order stated. “This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”
Sajet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
