Ahead of Donald Trump’s recent state visit to Britain, the president apparently wanted to present King Charles with some kind of gift, and administration officials settled on something related to Dwight Eisenhower. (Eisenhower, of course, led the Allied forces in World War II before getting elected to the White House.)
The New York Times reported what happened next:
Through a personal email address, an administration official approached the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kan., which has at least one Eisenhower sword in its collection, given to him in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. But the library declined to release it or any other original artifact in its collection, on the grounds that they are the property of the U.S. government, which the library is obligated by law to preserve for the American public.
Trump ended up giving the British monarch a replica sword, but that’s not the important part.
Rather, what makes this story extraordinary is that Todd Arrington, the director of the Eisenhower library, was soon after forced out of his job.
Technically, Arrington resigned, but he told the Times that it was not voluntary. “I never imagined that I would be fired from almost 30 years of government service for this,” he said.
Part of what makes this development striking is how often the White House has picked ugly and unnecessary fights with museums and libraries in recent months, including an offensive in August in which Team Trump took steps to bring the Smithsonian Institution in line with the president’s perspective. That came on the heels of Trump firing the librarian of Congress.
But just as notable is the other pattern: The White House has a nasty habit of punishing federal officials for doing the right thing. In the case regarding the Eisenhower sword, Arrington received an email from a State Department liaison (she used a “giftgirl2025” address) who said that the administration was looking for “like a sword or something.” Arrington, well aware of the fact that it would’ve been illegal to give away U.S. property, declined. His punishment came soon after. This is, alas, a familiar dynamic. A prosecutor does the right thing by refusing to bring a corrupt indictment? He’s fired. An IRS official does the right thing by refusing to cooperate with a legally dubious DOGE request? He’s fired. A presidential librarian does the right thing by refusing to turn over a sword to be used as a foreign gift? He’s fired. The message to federal officials everywhere is hardly subtle: When confronted with improper requests, your career will likely come to an abrupt end if the White House doesn’t like your answer.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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