A museum director mentioned he was fired after refusing to present President Donald Trump a sword from former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s assortment, The New York Instances reported Thursday.
Trump had meant to present the sword to King Charles throughout his state go to to the U.Ok. lately, however settled for a duplicate, in response to the Instances.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, denied an administration consultant’s e-mail request for the sword, the Instances wrote. The museum mentioned it, and all different artifacts there, have been the property of the U.S. authorities and have been preserved for the American public.
This week, the director of the museum honoring Eisenhower, the one five-star common to develop into president, was ousted.
“I never imagined that I would be fired from almost 30 years of government service for this,” Todd Arrington advised the Instances.
Arrington mentioned his direct supervisor delivered the information that he’d be requested to resign and that the order got here from higher-ups, KCUR reported.
Nationwide Archives and Information Administration
Arrington advised CBS that officers accused him of breaching belief. “Apparently, they believed I could no longer be trusted with confidential information,” he mentioned, referring to “the sword” and an unrelated matter.
One administration official advised CBS he thought Arrington had criticized the president and the administration, which Arrington denied.
Trump has pushed to amass different historic gadgets earlier than. It was reported earlier this 12 months that he sought to have the precise Declaration of Independence moved from the Nationwide Archives Constructing into the Oval Workplace, however frequent sense prevailed.
He additionally has longstanding beef with the Nationwide Archives as a result of the establishment alerted the FBI that Trump didn’t return categorised paperwork from his first time period, prompting the 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
Shortly after retaking workplace, Trump terminated the archivist of america, Dr. Colleen Shogan, and changed her with Marco Rubio, who’s performing archivist whereas additionally serving as U.S. secretary of state. Shogan introduced Arrington’s hiring in August 2024.
“Todd Arrington’s dedication to historic preservation and public engagement is unparalleled,” she mentioned.
The Nationwide Archives didn’t reply to HuffPost’s request for touch upon Arrington’s firing.
Chris Jackson by way of Getty Photographs
