On 30 May, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he was terminating Kim Sajet as director of the National Portrait Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution. The president accused Sajet of being a 'highly partisan person' and a 'strong supporter' of diversity and inclusion programmes, which he had eliminated from federal agencies by executive order on his inauguration day.
Sajet, a Dutch art historian in her early 60s, had been director for 12 years. She described the incident as 'another day in the office', noting that scrutiny from Congress and legal challenges from a painter whose portrait of Trump she had refused to display were commonplace. The painter had pursued her through the courts for years.
The move came after an executive order on 27 March titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History', which claimed the Smithsonian had 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centred ideology'. The order appointed Trump aide Lindsey Halligan, an insurance attorney with no arts experience, to oversee changes alongside Vice-President JD Vance.
Trump had earlier declared himself chair of the Kennedy Center in February, vowing to end 'woke' programming, and later renamed the centre after himself. The Smithsonian had pre-emptively closed its diversity offices after Trump's executive order, though it is not a federal agency.
