Recently received emails suggest that some individual donors were willing to fund official portraits of Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, but the Smithsonian eventually agreed to accept Trump’s $650,000 donation to PAC Save America.
The donation marks the first time in recent memory that a political organization has funded museum portraits of former presidents, as they are usually paid for by individual donors recruited by the Smithsonian. The unusual gift, first reported by Business Insider in August, also sparked a public backlash against the museum and cast doubt on the identity of a second donor who donated an additional $100,000 gift to fund portraits organized by Citizens for Responsible and Ethical Washington. was reviewed on Monday by The Washington Post.
Smithsonian Institution spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas reiterated on Monday that the second donor was “a citizen who wishes to remain anonymous.” She also noted that one of the portraits is already ready, and the other is “in work.”
However, museum rules state that if a former president runs for president again, his image cannot be released. As a result, the museum may not reveal the names of the two invited artists until the 2024 presidential election, St. Thomas told the Post. If Trump wins this election, the portraits will only be displayed after his second term, according to museum rules.
“We don’t release the artist’s name before the opening, although in that case it could change because a lot of time has passed,” St. Thomas said. A 2019 photograph of Trump taken by Pari Dukovic for Time magazine is on temporary display at the National Portrait Gallery’s “American Presidents” exhibition before the official portrait is unveiled. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the photo will soon be removed for conservation reasons.
Negotiations between museum officials and Trump over the portrait and its funding have continued for months, starting in early 2021, shortly after Trump left office, emails show.
The process is described in a message from Kim Saget, director of the National Portrait Gallery, to Molly Michael, Trump’s executive assistant at the post office. Sadget noted that Trump would eventually approve or disapprove of the painting before it was put on display. (A spokesman for the Smithsonian told The Post that museum staff later called Trump’s team to clarify that he would not receive final approval.)
“Of course, if Mr. Trump has ideas for other artists, we would welcome those suggestions,” Sadget wrote to Michael in an email dated March 18, 2021. “Our goal was to find an artist who, in the opinion of the museum and the sitter, would create a good portrait for the gallery of the Presidents of the United States on a permanent basis.”
About two months later, Sadget also noted that the National Portrait Gallery was raising private funds for all presidential portraits and asked for help finding “friends and fans of the Trump family who can support these commissions.”
On May 28, 2021, Saget wrote to Michael, “In order to maintain a respectful distance between their private lives and their public legacy, we choose not to approach members of the Trump family or contribute to any of Trump’s businesses.”
About a week later, Michael told Sadget that the Trump team had “found several donors who, as individuals, would probably donate in full.”
”I will be posting names and contact information over the next few days to align our ducks and determine the president’s final preference,” Michael wrote.
A week later, Michael sent another list, but the names were redacted from public emails seen by The Post. Michael wrote that she “will have another dozen if needed”.
It is unclear what happened in terms of fundraising after that and led to the decision to accept money from the Trump PAC. The emails indicate that some of the conversations took place over the phone or during virtual meetings.
In September 2021, they exchanged emails regarding the “first session” of the portrait. Then, on February 17, 2022, Saget sent another email to Michael explaining the museum’s policy on collections.
“No living person is allowed to pay for their own likeness,” Sajet wrote, citing the policy. “The NPG may contact the sitter’s family, friends and acquaintances to cover the costs of commissioning the portrait, provided that the NPG takes the lead in the negotiations and the invited party does not influence the artist’s choice or price.”
On March 8, 2022, Saget asked Michael if she could share over the phone with updates from those who have expressed interest in supporting the museum’s work.
“We are beginning to incur costs that need to be covered and we are looking to move closer to fundraising through the project,” Sajet wrote.
After coordinating a phone call over several emails, Michael wrote to Saget on March 25, 2022, stating that “the best contact to continue our discussions” was Susie Wiles, a Republican political adviser who was later named Trump’s senior adviser in 2024. – election campaign.
In a letter dated May 11, 2022, on Smithsonian letterhead, museum officials wrote to Save America PCC Treasurer Bradley Clutter, acknowledging “the political organization’s recent generous $650,000 pledge” to support the Trump Portrait Commission.
”In recognition of this generous support, the Smithsonian Institution will display the words ‘Save America’ on the labels of items displayed with the portrait during the exhibition and next to the image of the portrait on the NPG website,” the museum wrote.
They added that PAC Save America will also invite 10 guests to the presentation, followed by a private portrait viewing of up to five guests.
On July 20, 2022, Wiles emailed Usha Subramanian, director of development at the National Portrait Gallery, a copy of the signed agreement.
The $750,000 commission for the two Trump portraits will be paid for by the Save America PAC donation and a second $100,000 private gift from an unnamed private donor, the museum said last year.
Although unusual, donations are legal because Save America is the governing PAC, with few restrictions on the use of its funds. Such PACs, in addition to promoting like-minded candidates, can be used to pay consultants, cover travel and legal expenses, among other expenses. Most of the Trump GAC funding comes from small donors responding to emails and other inquiries.
Trump’s representatives declined to comment. On Tuesday, Smithsonian Institution spokeswoman Concetta Duncan told The Post that the museum separates Trump’s political action committee from his family and business.
“Because the PAC represents the pool of sponsors, the Portrait Gallery is happy to accept these funds as it does not affect the selection of artists or the value of the collective facility,” she wrote in an email.
The museum faced backlash after the donation was made public last year. In an email last August, the Smithsonian’s social media strategist collected tweets from users upset by the donation announcement.
“Of course people don’t seem to realize that we have portraits of all presidents,” wrote social media strategist Erin Blascoe. “They were upset that we got Trump’s image, but there were also a lot of people who were upset that it was considered a ‘donation’, especially after criticizing their fundraising methods.”
Also included is a copy of a handwritten letter from a disillusioned patron who said he was the same age as the former president and asked the museum not to display Trump’s portrait.
“Please, at least until the DOJ and FBI investigations are over,” the patron wrote. “He used our precious White House to commit crimes.”
At the time, St. Thomas told her museum colleagues that she considered the opposition to be just “the tip of the iceberg”.
“Read the article,” she wrote in an email. “They list other things that PAC offers. We are there.
Although the National Portrait Gallery was created by Congress in 1962, it did not commission outgoing presidents until 1994, when Ronald Sherr painted a portrait of George W. Bush.
In the past, portraits have been funded by private donations, often from supporters of the outgoing government. More than 200 donors, including Steven Spielberg, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, contributed to the $750,000 commission for portraits of Obama by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald. The list of Obama and Bush portrait donors does not include the PKK.