President Donald Trump fired the National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet for being a \u201cstrong supporter\u201d of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUpon the request and recommendation of many people, I am hereby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery. 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!\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House also noted one of the gallery\u2019s photos of Trump, which was curated by Sajet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The caption of the photo reads, \u201cImpeached 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House official also said it was ironic that Sajet said, \u201cWe try very much not to editorialize. I don\u2019t want by reading the label to get a sense of what the curator\u2019s opinion is about that person. I want someone reading the label to understand that it\u2019s based on historical fact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 4, Sajet addressed a gathering at the National Portrait Museum\u2019s Richardson Symposium: Racial Masquerade in American Art and Culture that she spent the majority of her time on \u201cidentity politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmerica has never been able to separate a person\u2019s appearance from their potential. Our history is filled, and continues to be, with examples of hatred, discrimination, fear, and alienation,\u201d Sajet said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sajet then described a time on December 7, 1972, when she \u201csuddenly felt\u201d the world was going to join together and put an end to \u201cpetty differences\u201d while thinking holistically about what it meant to be human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the day astronaut Jack Schmidt of Apollo 17 took a photograph of the Earth and named it the \u201cBlue Marble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, that utopian vision feels very, very far away today in the terrifying wake of the most uncivil, mistrustful, racially insensitive, sexually exploitative, factually untruthful, digitally manipulated, secretive, and inflammatory election of the modern era,\u201d Sajet said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe National Portrait Gallery, as I\u2019ve mentioned, is all about identity politics, whether it is to defend the label text that says President Eisenhower was cautious on civil rights or explaining why only 25% of women were historically considered cool or standing firm or not, allowing Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, to be removed from the Smithsonian or even outlining why we show the portrait of Sylvia Rivera, the transgender activist in the galleries,\u201d Sajet later said during the same speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hours after taking the Oath of Office on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate all DEI programs from the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n