Two weeks after President Donald Trump claimed he’d fired her because she’s a “highly partisan person,” the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery director, Kim Sajet, announced she was stepping down.
In a memo sent to staff Friday, first obtained by The New York Times, Sajet didn’t address Trump’s attacks but said she believed this was the right move for the museum.
“This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one,” she said in a memo sent out by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. “From the very beginning, my guiding principle has been to put the museum first. Today, I believe that stepping aside is the best way to serve the institution I hold so deeply in my heart.”
Bunch praised Sajet, saying she “put the needs of the Institution above her own, and for that we thank her.”
