The mystery provocateurs behind last week’s eight-foot-tall golden monument of President Donald Trump crushing Lady Liberty have returned to Washington, D.C.’s National Mall with another contribution to the genre of unauthorized presidential fan art—this time, video.

On Thursday morning, a life-sized, gold-painted television set appeared near Third Street NW, pointed squarely at the Capitol, the Washington Post reported. Its screen played a silent, 15-second loop of Donald Trump performing his now-infamous slow-motion dance moves—arms stiff, hips ambivalent, a slow-grinding shimmy—set against backdrops ranging from campaign rallies to a party with Jeffrey Epstein. The latter, for those who have forgotten, was the late financier and convicted sex offender who died while awaiting trial in 2019.

Above the TV sat a spray-painted gold eagle, wings spread in what might generously be described as majesty. Gold ivy trailed down the sides like a rejected Versace ad. At the base, a plaque read: In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called ‘art,’ no matter how ugly it is. — The Trump White House, June 2025

The quote was pulled from a White House statement last week responding to the previous installation, Dictator Approved—a golden thumbs-up smashing the Statue of Liberty’s crown, accompanied by fawning quotes from Trump’s strongman fan club: Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Jair Bolsonaro, and Kim Jong Un.

According to its National Park Service permit, the purpose of the video work is to “demonstrate freedom of speech and artistic expression using political imagery.” Translation: trolling with a permit. The piece is allowed to remain on the Mall through Sunday at 8 p.m., barring executive orders to the contrary.

The White House, still nursing its bruised aesthetic sensibilities from last week, was again unamused.

“Wow, these liberal activists masquerading as ‘artists,’ are dumber than I thought!” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, in a statement presumably meant to be read aloud in all caps. “I’ve tricked them into taking down their ugly sculpture and replacing it with a beautiful video of the president’s legendary dance moves that will bring joy and inspiration to all tourists traversing our National Mall.”

She concluded: “Maybe they will put this on their next sculpture.”

As for who’s behind all this? Still a mystery. The materials and gallows humor are consistent with guerrilla works that popped up last fall in D.C., Portland, and Philadelphia: a bronze tiki torch, a replica of Nancy Pelosi’s desk topped with fake poop—part performance art, part lowbrow indictment of the January 6 insurrection.

Permit records list a “Mary Harris” as the applicant, though no contact details were provided. For those into clues: Mary Harris Jones was the real name of labor leader “Mother” Jones. Either the artist is playing a long game or moonlighting as a U.S. history teacher.

Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., will depart her post following a social media post by President Donald Trump in which he said he had fired her.

Legal experts and art historians have questioned whether Trump has the ability to fire anyone at the Smithsonian Institution, the museum network that operates the National Portrait Gallery. The Smithsonian affirmed its independence this week, saying that only its secretary and its Board of Regents controls personnel changes. That Board of Regents includes Vice President JD Vance.

It seemed this week that Sajet would remain in her position. The Washington Post reported that she had continued to report to work as usual at the start of the week, and the Smithsonian statement followed shortly thereafter.

But as of June 13, she has departed her post as National Portrait Gallery director, a position she had held since 2013.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch had sent an email to staff that included remarks from Sajet. “This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one,” Sajet said. “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.”

Per the Times report, she did not explicitly mention Trump and his remarks on Truth Social, his social media platform. In his letter to staff, Bunch wrote, “We thank Kim for her service. She put the needs of the Institution above her own, and for that we thank her.”

On Truth Social, Trump claimed that Sajet was “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position,” without elaborating on the meaning of his comments. This week, the Post revealed that the administration claimed to have found 17 times in which Sajet had the criticized Trump, whether through her programming or in interviews, or spoke out in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Among those points was a wall text accompanying a portrait of Trump that is exhibited by the National Portrait Gallery. The label mentions Trump’s two impeachments and his “incitement of insurrection” on January 6, 2021. Another point addressed a USA Today piece in which Sajet spoke positively of efforts to expand Black representation within portraiture in museums, saying, “I’m not interested in only having a museum for some people.”

Trump had previously targeted the Smithsonian in an executive order intended to weed out “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” at the 21 museums the network operates alongside libraries, research centers, and a zoo. The executive order focused specifically on exhibitions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The executive order was issued on March 27, nearly two weeks after NMAAHC director Kevin Young went on personal leave. Young officially left the museum in April.

Trump does not manage the Smithsonian, which this week said in its statement, “All personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the Secretary, with oversight by the Board.” Moreover, the Smithsonian said it was a “nonpartisan institution.”

“To reinforce our nonpartisan stature, the Board of Regents has directed the Secretary to articulate specific expectations to museum directors and staff regarding content in Smithsonian museums, give directors reasonable time to make any needed changes to ensure unbiased content, and to report back to the Board on progress and any needed personnel changes based on success or lack thereof in making the needed changes,” the Smithsonian said.

The current administration is seeking to defund parts of the Smithsonian network, as the proposed 2026 budget includes the elimination of the planned National Museum of the American Latino and the currently open Anacostia Community Museum, which was founded in 1967 and focuses on Black culture.

Sajet became the first woman ever to direct the National Portrait Gallery when she was appointed in 2013. She was born in Nigeria, raised in Australia, and educated in Australia and the US. She served in high-ranking posts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art before coming to D.C.

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

The Headlines

MOCA STAYS SHUTTERED AMID PROTESTS. The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) said it will keep its Geffen Contemporary space closed to the public through the weekend as the National Guard continues to confront anti-ECE protestors nearby, reports Alex Greenberger for the ARTnews. On June 8, MOCA shut the space, and yesterday the museum said the closure would remain in place “to prioritize the safety and well-being of our staff and visitors,” it stated on Instagram. The area surrounding the museum is also under an 8 p.m. curfew. Additionally, Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova’s performance, POLICE STATE, in which she has turned part of the Geffen Contemporary into a space resembling a prison cell, will be halted, said the museum. The artist had continued her durational performance after the June 8 closing, even as people were arrested outside the museum. Tolokonnikova has been joining the anti-ICE protests in the city, and commented on MOCA’s Instagram post about the extended closing, writing, “see you on the streets this Saturday,” and “migrants make America great.”

CRIMINAL SIT-UATION. Two Frenchmen who sold chairs they claimed once graced the rooms of Queen Marie Antoinette and other homes of 18th-century nobility, have been found guilty by a court north of Paris, reports Le Figaro. Once leading specialists in their domains, expert Bill Pallot, 61, and his partner in crime, carpenter Bruno Desnous, were handed four- and three-year suspended prison sentences, respectively, for selling the fake 18th-century furniture for millions of euros, even duping the Chateau de Versailles. The scandal is one of the largest of its kind seen in France, and involves a Qatari prince, as well as the prestigious Chateau de Versalles, who, between 2008 and 2015, were all conned into paying thousands for what they believed were historic objects. Pallot was also fined €200,000 ($232,000) and he’s banned from practicing his trade for five years. Desnous, who ironically worked for the Cheateau de Versailles previously, was also fined €100,000 ($116,000). Dealer Laurent Kraemer, whose gallery sold four of the fake chairs, was acquitted of charges of negligence. The Chateau de Versailles was reprimanded in 2017 by a government inspector due to “serious failures” for not having spotted the fake furniture, and on Wednesday, the court recognized the museum’s “partial” responsibility in neglecting to spot the fakes. Their lawyer said they were disappointed with the ruling. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s was cleared of any responsibility in having sold the forged furniture.

The Digest

President Donald Trump’s attendance on Wednesday night at the Kennedy Center performance of Les Misérables in Washington D.C. was met by the audience with boos, some cheers, and five protesting drag performers.  [The Washington Post]

Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka’s acclaimed La Belle Rafaëla (1927) will be auctioned by Sotheby’s London on June 24 for an estimated £6 to £9 million ($8 -$12 million). [The Guardian]

The UK government has given £12 million ($16.29 million) in funding to Tate Liverpool’s redevelopment project, which is initially estimated to cost £29.7 million ($40.32 million). Tate Liverpool was due to reopen this year, but difficulty in raising funds for the overhaul has postponed the opening until 2027. [The Art Newspaper]

Caroline Lang, chairman at Sotheby’s Switzerland and deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, will step down from her roles at the auction house, where she has worked for nearly 40 years. She is one of the first women to hold court from an international podium and is lauded for securing key consignments of major collections. [Press release]

The Kicker

NOW WASH YOUR HANDS. Since 1977, Mierle Laderman Ukeles has held the title as the first and only official, unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation — a role she created for herself. In one of her residency projects, Touch Sanitation, she thanked and shook hands with all 8,500 sanitation workers in the city. Probably better known for her feminist opus, Maintenance for Manifesto Art written in 1969, a new documentary about her, titled “Maintenance Artist,” by Toby Perl Freilich will shine a light on her fascinating life and practice, reports Cultured Magazine. Ahead of the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Freilich and Ukeles talked to the magazine about the state of feminism today, the process of social change, Ukeles’s practice, and the film’s development. “I would hope that people will come away from the film thinking that you can do big things that aren’t just general, but actually face each individual person who’s involved,” said Ukeles. “You can listen to them, but you can also do something. We can change. We can build an orchestra. We can always build.”

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

The Headlines

SMITHSONIAN STANDS UP TO TRUMP. On Monday evening, the Smithsonian Institution affirmed it is an “independent entity” in a statement subtly challenging President Donald Trump’s ‘firing’ of the National Portrait Gallery director, Kim Sajet, reports Harrison Jacobs for ARTnews. “All personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the Secretary, with oversight by the Board. Lonnie G. Bunch, the Secretary, has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian,” read the statement released on the institution’s website. Indeed, Sajet has continued to report to work, despite Trump’s firing, which his administration said was due to Sajet’s perceived criticism of the president. The Smithsonian’s statement also seemed to allude obliquely to the administration’s complaints and previous targeting of the Smithsonian museums in an earlier executive order accusing them of “improper ideology” via “exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values.” “To reinforce our nonpartisan stature, the Board of Regents has directed the Secretary to articulate specific expectations to museum directors and staff regarding content in Smithsonian museums, give directors reasonable time to make any needed changes to ensure unbiased content, and to report back to the Board on progress,” continued the Smithsonian statement.

POLICE STATE OF LA. Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) closed its Geffen branch on Sunday as National Guard soldiers descended on the city and law enforcement clashed in places with anti-ICE protesters. “Out of an abundance of caution and for the safety and well-being of our staff and visitors, the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, including the WAREHOUSE, closed early today, Sunday, June 8 at 1:30pm,” stated the institution on Instagram. Meanwhile, in a reality-imitating-art moment, Russian artist Nadya Tolokonnikova’s durational performance, Police State, is continuing until its planned 6pm end time, despite the museum being closed, added the statement. Intermittent live streams of the performance can be seen on the museum’s Instagram Stories. “Durational performance is a scary thing to step into: once you said you’re going to show up, you can’t just leave simply because the National Guard had a whim to occupy the city, so my choice was to stay and continue doing my job as an artist,” said Tolokonnikova in a written comment provided by the museum, reported Artnet News. The Los Angeles Times has also commented on the “prophetic backdrop” of Barbara Kruger’s downtown LA mural, Questions (1990), in front of which protestors denounced ICE raids and the deployment of the National Guard. The 30-by-191-foot mural takes up the side wall of MOCA’s warehouse building, with white letters on a red background that ask nine questions, including: “Who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? Who does the time? Who follows orders? Who salutes longest? Who prays loudest? Who dies first? Who laughs last?” Kruger, a longtime Los Angeles resident, responded via email to the current state of events when questioned by the LAT: “This provocation is giving Trump what he wants: the moment he can declare martial law. As if that’s not already in play.”

The Digest

Sydney-based artist Jack Ball has won the Ramsay Art Prize, worth a cool AUD$100,000 ($65,000). Ball was recognized for his large, multimedia installation, Heavy Grit (2024), investigating themes of queer intimacy and the transgender experience. The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) established the biennial acquisition award in 2017, and it is considered the country’s most illustrious honor for an artist under 40. [Artforum]

An 11-inch, rediscovered Auguste Rodin sculpture titled Despair (1892), long-thought to have been a copy, just sold for about $1 million. The hunched figure of a girl holding her foot went missing after it was sold at auction in 1906, according to the Comite Rodin, which is the leading authority on the artist. [AFP]

A woman said to be President Putin’s daughter, Elizaveta Krivonogikh [aka Elizaveta Rudnova] 22, works at an art gallery in Paris that shows Ukrainian artists and some Russian émigrés. She reportedly interns at Alexandre Vichnevsky’s two spaces, L Galerie and Studio Albatros, following studies at Icart, a private art school in Paris. Putin has denied that she is his daughter from an alleged extramarital affair with Svetlana Krivonogikh. [Le Quotidien de l’Art and the Times]

On June 6, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art launched a new artist residency in collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin. Its focus is on artists whose practice incorporates craft or artisanal materials and methods, and it lasts 18 months, allowing artists to spend time in the collections, work with Met staff and artisans at the watchmaker’s Geneva headquarters, and show their work at the Met in October, 2026. The three artists selected for the inaugural edition include Aspen Golann, Ibrahim Said, and Joy Harvey. [The Art Newspaper]

Sydney Contemporary, which runs September 11-14, is debuting a new photography section, called Photo Sydney, in response to collector demand. The fair’s director, Zoe Paulsen, said Photo Sydney “will bring critical focus to the richness and diversity of contemporary photography, offering a dedicated platform for established and emerging voices in the medium.” [ArtAsiaPacific]

The Digest

HANGING OUT IN ROME. Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu talks to Julia Halperin for the Financial Times, ahead of her solo show at the ornate, 17th-century Galleria Borghese in Rome. There, rather than a traditional hang, the majority of the works will be suspended from the ceiling, leaving “negative space” for visitors to float through. Mutu describes her approach to artmaking, informed by having grown up under a dictatorship, as having “to figure out ways to be rebellious without being noticed,” she said. To that end, she attempts to lift the lid on the fact that, “there’s a fiction told about what Europe is, what Africa is … They are dangerous fictions being used against people, and not just in one country.” This fiction, explains the artist, includes notions of national purity, which have been gaining ground of late. “There’s Roman emperors who were African — there’s a lot of Africa in Rome, and there’s a lot of Rome in Africa,” Mutu says.

Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., was still coming to work earlier this week—even after Donald Trump said he fired her last Friday.

Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that he was ousting Sajet for being a “strong supporter of DEI,” without providing further clarification about what that meant. The Smithsonian Institution, a network of museums that operates the National Portrait Gallery, has yet to issue a statement about Trump’s comments on Sajet.

This week, however, the Washington Post revealed the Trump administration’s reasoning for seeking to oust Sajet. A White House official provided the Post with a 17-point list of what the administration described as times Sajet spoke or acted in ways critical of Trump.

One of those times involved the exhibition of a portrait of Trump that bore a caption referring to his two impeachments, as well as his “incitement of insurrection” on January 6, 2021. The White House reportedly also singled out Sajet’s donations to Democratic causes and noted interviews in which she mentioned wanting to expand the diversity of the museum’s offerings, including one with USA Today in 2019 in which she said, “I’m not interested in only having a museum for some people.”

The White House has yet to demonstrate how Trump has the power to fire Sajet, and even did not respond to the New York Times this week when asked to do so. Trump does not sit on the board of the Smithsonian, which does include some members nominated by the president. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice president, is on the board with ex officio status, as is the Chief Justice of the United States.

Two Democratic members of the House of Representatives—House Administration Committee ranking Democrat Joseph Morelle of New York and House Appropriations Committee ranking Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut have issued a statement in which they said Trump has “no authority” to fire Sajet. “The dismissal of Director Sajet is unacceptable and has the same legal weight as the President’s prior attempts to undermine the Smithsonian’s independence: absolutely none,” they wrote.

How the Smithsonian will respond remains an open question. Gary Peters, a Democratic senator representing Michigan who sits on the Smithsonian’s board, told the Post that he and the other board members “will discuss the issue further” at its next meeting on Monday. He added, “Clearly, the president has no authority whatsoever to fire her.”

The National Portrait Gallery is one of many museums managed by the Smithsonian, whose network also includes the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, all in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian also manages a few museums outside D.C., including the National Museum of the American Indian, which operates a New York branch in addition a D.C. one.

Trump has previously targeted the Smithsonian in the form of an executive order in which he accused its museums of putting forward “improper ideology” via “exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values.” That executive order singled out shows at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The White House dropped the new official presidential portrait of Donald Trump on its website and Facebook page on Monday.

The portrait, taken by photographer Daniel Torok, shows the president up close and personal, staring directly at the viewer, with his face in full detail taking up the majority of the frame. While he’s dressed in a blue suit, a red tie, and a white shirt, adorned with an American flag pin, his body is blurred against a black backdrop.

Hung in a gold frame in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing of the White House, reported the Washington Post, it’s hard to miss the distinct black and gold color combination that characterizes most Trump properties.

It has drawn comparison to a mug shot of Trump from two years prior, wherein he appears with a scowl on his face, similarly dressed in the same color combination.

The image is quite different, however, from a painting he had placed in the White House in April. This portrait featured Trump raising his fist in the air, following a pivotal moment on the campaign trail while seeking a second term, when a gunman attempted to assassinate him at an event in Butler, Pennsylvania. The image became a rallying point for his second-term bid, along with Trump’s encouragement to “fight, fight, fight.”

It also differs from past photographic presidential portraits. The 2017 iteration from Trump’s first term shows the president smiling in front of the American flag. The portrait released during his inauguration in January features a similarly severe gaze very close up, but still again situated in front of the flag.

The president has been very particular about his portrait, calling for the removal of his “purposefully distorted” portrait from the Colorado State Capitol in March. This extends to a larger visual program for the United States, including dismantling current programs and ordering a return to classical architecture.

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

The Headlines

BRITAIN’S CARAVAGGIO. Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery have joined up to acquire William Dobson’s 1630’s self-portrait, an artist viewed by some as “Britain’s Caravaggio,” reports the Times. In the fall, the painting of the dapper court painter to Charles I, who lived in 1611-46, will go on display at Tate Britain next to the artist’s portrait of his wife, Judith. Tate director Maria Balshaw also revealed that the painting was picked up for £2,367,405, far less than the rumored £5 million. “In my book, that makes it one of the bargains of the century. For the price of an average print by Andy Warhol, the nation has got its hands on a crucial bit of its heritage,” writes art critic Waldemar Januszczak, who argues the artist is “up there with Turner and Constable.”

PARIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM VANDALIZED. The façade of the Mémorial de la Shoah museum in Paris was splashed with green paint over the weekend, along with two historic synagogues, and a restaurant in central Paris’s Marais district, reports Le Monde. No one has come forward to claim responsibility for the vandalism, but the city’s mayor has filed an initial legal complaint, while an investigation is under way for damage committed due to religious affiliation. Photos of the incident show “Le Mur des Justes,” [The Wall of the Righteous], containing the names of thousands who helped save Jews from Nazi persecution, located along the Shoah museum’s façade, now splashed with green paint.

The Digest

Banksy’s new artwork recently discovered in Marseille, France, has already been vandalized, and quickly cleaned up by a local restorer. Only a few days after it appeared, someone transformed Banksy’s stencil of a lighthouse into a phallic image. “I’m used to it. I’m from Marseille. It’s a national sport to combat [graffiti] tags here,” said Agnès Perrone, who repaired the work, which also features the phrase, “I want to be what you saw in me.” [Le Figaro]

Klaus Biesenbach, director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and a dual German American citizen, said in an interview that he was not surprised by Donald Trump’s re-election to president in 2024. “Trump’s people now have much greater political clout than during his first term; he himself is carrying out a revolution on this basis, including a cultural revolution, and he is reinforcing his unfortunate dominance through the oligarchs with whom he surrounds himself,” he said. He also discussed the controversy between the museum and artist Nan Goldin over the war in Gaza, including his rebuttal to her accusation that Israel has committed genocide. “I never thought Nan would be so cold,” he said. [Spiegel]

Experts are warning that a 50,000-year-old rock art site on the Australian coast is under threat of destruction by a bid to extend a natural gas project in the area until 2070. Benjamin Smith, an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia, has told the media that petroglyphs on the site have been damaged by air-borne pollutants from the local Woodside Energy plant. [The Art Newspaper]

On June 8, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will open a group exhibition on the history and geography of African American quilting, featuring works by generations of artists in the Brackens family. Curated by Elaine Yau, the show draws from a 2019 gift to the museum from the estate of quilt collector Eli Leon. “A big part of the show is trying to resist the erasure of Black women artists and their legacies,” Yau said. [The New York Times]

The Kicker

NEW NAOSHIMA MUSEUM. On Saturday, a new museum opened on Japan’s Naoshima island, making it the tenth art institution designed by Tadao Ando to join the site, and the first dedicated to contemporary art, reports the New York Times. The Naoshima New Museum of Art is the latest addition to the 1992-initiated project known as the Bennesse Art Site Naoshima, spread across three, art-filled islands in the Seto Inland Sea. “I wanted to create a kind of utopia in this world, one where people could genuinely find happiness through contemporary art,” said Japanese billionaire Soichiro Fukutake, about the Benesse initiative, which his family began as a way to rehabilitate the island from pollution damage. The new museum is also Fukutake’s last such endeavor, as he wraps up his involvement on the island. “I feel fulfilled — there’s nothing I regret or leave unfinished in life,” he said. For its inaugural exhibit titled “From the Origin to the Future,” the new museum is featuring site-specific new artworks by Asian artists, including pieces by Takashi Murakami, Pannaphan Yodmanee, and Sanitas Pradittasnee. About his ten architectural designs on the island, Ando remarked that “looking back, what I find most fascinating is that these 10 buildings were not developed through any preconceived master plan,” he said. “Rather, they emerged organically, growing and multiplying like living organisms.”

President Donald Trump said on Friday afternoon that he had fired Kim Sajet, director of Washington, D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery. It is now unclear who will lead the museum, one of many run by the Smithsonian Institution, a museum network Trump has targeted since returning the presidency in January.

“Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by the Trump Media & Technology Group. “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.”

Sajet has led the National Portrait Gallery since 2013. Prior to that role, she had served as director and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and as deputy director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Right now, the museum has an exhibition called “America’s Presidents” that features images of people who have led this country, from Elaine de Kooning’s painting of John F. Kennedy to Gilbert Stuart’s images of George Washington. She told the Guardian last year, “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.”

At the time, the Guardian reported that the presentation included a portrait of Trump that came with a caption noting that he had been “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.”

Trump’s statement did not mention what had prompted her firing. The National Portrait Gallery did not respond to ARTnews’s request for comment at press time.

In addition to the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution also manages the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Both of those institutions were singled out by Trump in an executive order in March that focused on “anti-American ideology” at Smithsonian-run museums.

“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 executive order read. “This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

In January, Trump signed an executive order calling for an end to federal DEI programs. Shortly after the signing of the order, the Smithsonian began winding down the operations of its DEI department.

After the March executive order was issued, media reports noted that the NMAAHC’s director, Kevin Young, had been quietly placed on leave for an “undetermined period.” He officially left his role in April.

A gunman shot dead two Israeli embassy staffers on Wednesday night as they were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum in downtown Washington D.C. The victims, identified as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinksy, had been attending an event at the museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) advocacy group.

“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Israeli embassy spokesperson, Tal Naim Cohen, wrote on X. “We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.”

The event at the museum was advertised as the annual AJC Young Diplomats reception for promoting coalitions in the Middle East. On the AJC’s website, it says it backs Israel and fights antisemitism. 

Police have identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago. He was spotted “pacing back and forth outside of the museum,” according to Pamela Smith, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. While addressing journalists at a press conference in the wake of the shooting, she said the suspect “approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire striking both of our decedents.”

Diplomatic sources have told Reuters and AFP news agencies that Lischinksy had a German passport. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called the attack “despicable,” while President Donald Trump posted online that “Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Speaking to the BBC, American Jewish Committee board member Jojo Kalin said that after the incident, the shooter walked into the museum. According to Kalin, the gunman displayed a keffiyeh, a garment worn in parts of the Middle East, and which has become symbolic of the Palestinian liberation movement in the United States. The gunman allegedly shouted inside the museum, “Free Palestine.”

Kalin added: “It’s deeply ironic that what we were discussing was bridge building and then we were all hit over the head with such hatred.”

Katie Kalisher, an eyewitness, told the BBC that “at around 9:07 p.m., we heard gun shots, then a guy came in [to the museum] looking really distressed, and we thought that he just needed help and shelter.”

“People were calming him down, bringing him water, taking care of him – little did they know that he was someone who had executed people in cold blood. He was the shooter,” Yoni Kalin, another eyewitness, told the BBC.

Rodriguez is currently being questioned in police custody.

President Donald Trump recently named five new members to the US Holocaust Memorial Council, including a former cast member of the reality television program “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”

On May 5, Trump announced the appointments of Tila Falic, Rabbi Nate Segal, Lee Lipton, Jackie Zeckman, and Siggy Flicker, who was a cast member on two seasons of the “Real Housewives” franchise and whose stepson was charged in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump also reappointed New York financial executive Jonathan Burkan to the board of the US Holocaust Museum. Burkan is the honorary chairman of the Israel Heritage Foundation and was first appointed to the US Holocaust Memorial Council in 2019 during Trump’s first term.

“They are all strong supporters of Israel, and will ensure we, NEVER FORGET,” Trump wrote in a post on the social media site Truth Social.

The five appointments, along with eight others President Trump made last week, replace members of the museum board that had been previously named by President Joe Biden but were fired on April 29.

The announcement appointments are also allies or supporters of the president, including Flicker, whose Instagram bio includes “#1 Trump Supporter” and profile photo shows her standing next to the president and holding an Israeli flag.

“Thank you to the best President for appointing me to serve on the Holocaust Committee,” Flicker wrote in an Instagram post on May 8. “As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, this isn’t just an honor—it’s deeply personal. My father’s story is a reminder that silence is never an option. I carry his legacy with me, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to help preserve the truth and fight Jew-hatred.”

In April 2024, Flicker’s stepson Tyler Campanella was arrested and charged with five misdemeanors in connection with the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The FBI’s indictment of Campanella references an Instagram post from Flicker’s account showing an image of her stepson inside the US Capitol that day with the caption, “I love patriots so much. Stay safe Tyler. We love you.” The indictment said the Instagram post also included the hashtag StopTheSteal.

The Washington Post, which first reported the news of the new board appointments, noted that “the abrupt ouster and replacement of Biden appointees before their terms expired — a prerogative that no previous president had exercised regarding the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum — has sparked concerns from some supporters of the museum.”

The Washington Post also reported that the Biden-appointed council members removed by Trump included Doug Emhoff, husband of former vice president Kamala Harris, former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, former labor secretary Tom Perez, former domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, former deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and Anthony Bernal, a former senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden.