Museum Official Ousted After Refusing Trump Admin. Request To Give King Charles a Sword

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum was ousted from his position this week after refusing a request from the Trump administration to gift King Charles III one of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s swords.

According to the New York Times, director Todd Arrington “was forced out of his job” after the Eisenhower Library declined to release a sword “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.”

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom last month, the Eisenhower Library reportedly received an email from a State Department liaison using the email address “giftgirl2025,” who informed the library she was looking for “like a sword or something.”

After being denied an original artefact, Trump ended up gifting King Charles a replica of one of Eisenhower’s swords.

While it is not certain that the sword incident was responsible for Arrington’s departure, the director was forced to resign just weeks after Trump visited the U.K.

“I never imagined that I would be fired from almost 30 years of government service for this,” Arrington told the Times, claiming he had been informed he “could no longer be trusted with confidential information.”

Arrington had also reportedly “angered” officials at the National Archives and Records Administration by sharing information with his staff about another matter.