Head of Kansas’ Eisenhower library forced out over Trump demand for museum sword
Todd Arrington, the director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas, was told that he could either “resign or be fired” from his job after refusing to give into a Trump Administration demand to hand over a museum sword that the president wished to deliver as a gift to Great Britain’s King Charles III.
Arrington was pressured to resign Thursday, according to multiple news outlets.
Presidential libraries are administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 makes it illegal to use artifacts given to presidential libraries as gifts.
“They asked for a sword,” Arrington told the Kansas News Service in a recent interview, “and we said, ‘Well, we do have swords, but we can’t give them away because they’re museum artifacts.’”
The requested sword had been given to Eisenhower in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Arrington reportedly had worked with officials and the U.S. State Department to come up with an alternative gift — a replica of an Eisenhower sword from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — for the president to present to the king while visiting Great Britain in September.
“We felt very good about the way that everything worked out,” Arrington told the news service. “It was a great feather in our cap to have helped figure out this gift for the president to present to the king.”
Arrington told news outlets that he had heard no complaints regarding the gift or the fact that the law had prevented him from handing over a museum artifact. Then, on Monday evening, Arrington said, he was contacted by a supervisor who told Arrington that he was being asked to resign, or be fired, because he “could no longer be trusted with confidential information.”
“I was obviously shocked and saddened and heartbroken, “Arrington said. “I have almost 30 years of government service. I’ve never had a bad mark against me.”
The New York Times has reported that three individuals with knowledge of the Arrington’s situation said that the director may also have angered officials at the National Archives and Records Administration for sharing information with his staff about changes to longstanding plans for a new education center.
Controversy at National Archives
Arrington had been in his position just over one year. The National Archives announced that he was chosen as the director of the museum and library in Abilene in July 2024. Arrington began his duties the following month.
“Todd Arrington’s dedication to historic preservation and public engagement is unparalleled,” Colleen Shogan, the then Archivist of the United States and head of The National Archives, said at the time. “His Park Service leadership, extensive scholarship, and creative social media approaches will be invaluable to the National Archives. We are fortunate to have someone of his caliber guiding our efforts to honor and help share President Eisenhower’s life and legacy.”
Shogan, who had been named Archivist of the United States in May 2023, was dismissed by Trump in February 2025.
Prior to being elected to his second term, the president had long been critical of the National Archives for the agency’s role in the Justice Department’s investigation of him, leading to his prosecution, over keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
The director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Sergio Gor, announced Shogan’s dismissal in February on social media.
“At the direction of @realDonaldTrump the Archivist of the United States has been dismissed tonight,” Gor wrote on X. “We thank Colleen Shogan for her service.”
Todd Arrington
Before leading the Eisenhower presidential library and museum, Arrington had led sites for the National Park Service for 25 years, the National Archives noted.
Arrington was site manager at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio. He also held leadership roles at the Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice, Nebraska, the Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as well as temporary leadership roles at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana.
In 2020, his book, “The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880,” was published by the University of Kansas Press. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Arrington earned his doctorate in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Arrington expressed dismay to The New York Times that his refusal to provide the Eisenhower sword to the president could have led to this forced resignation.
“I never imagined that I would be fired from almost 30 years of government service for this,” he told the news outlet. “I would absolutely come back in a heartbeat.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 1:02 PM.
