President Trump wanted a gift for King Charles.
Ahead of his state visit to Britain last month, the administration began looking for an artifact relating to President Dwight D. Eisenhower that the president could give the British monarch — a sword perhaps, or something else that spoke to Eisenhower’s role as the supreme commander of the Allied forces in World War II.
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.
Instead, Mr. Trump wound up giving King Charles a replica sword. And this week, the director of the Eisenhower library, Todd Arrington, was forced out of his job.
It was not immediately clear what led to his ouster, or what role his refusal to hand over the sword might have played.
Mr. Arrington, reached by telephone on Thursday, confirmed that he had been pressured to resign. He said that he had been told that he “could no longer be trusted with confidential information.” No other explanation was provided, he said, and he added that he had not received any noticeable pushback after his refusal to provide a sword.
In an interview, Mr. Arrington expressed dismay that his refusal to provide an Eisenhower sword could have been a factor that led to his forced resignation.
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The post After Declining to Give Trump a Sword for King Charles, a Museum Leader Is Out appeared first on New York Times.
