Where’s ‘America First’ on Trump trying to swipe Eisenhower sword for king of England? | Opinion
The people of Kansas — and indeed, the people of the United States of America — owe a great debt of gratitude today to a hero most have never heard of.
His name is Todd Arrington, and he fell on his sword to protect a sword once owned by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower from the ravages of the Trump Administration.
Arrington, a respected career historian and now the former director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum in Abilene, was run out of his job after having the courage to say “no” to a Trump Administration demand that he surrender an Eisenhower sword from the museum’s collection — so that President Donald Trump could gift it to England’s King Charles during his September state visit to the United Kingdom.
Not all heroes wield swords. Some just keep them from being stolen by craven politicos.
And that’s what Arrington did.
When contacted by the State Department and asked to turn over the Eisenhower sword, he politely but firmly informed them that he couldn’t give that, or any other historical artifact held in the museum’s trust, because they all belong to the American people. He offered to help them obtain a replica, or some other suitable gift for the king.
A few weeks later, he got the message from team Trump: resign or be fired. He chose to resign, in protest.
The White House claims it had no role in Arrington’s dismissal. But their fingerprints are all over the firing (but not the sword, thanks to Arrington).
One of Trump’s first actions in office was to fire the head of the National Archives, which is responsible for the preservation of America’s records and oversees the operation of most presidential libraries, including the Eisenhower Library.
The former national archivist, Colleen J. Shogan, was ousted by Trump because she objected to him keeping official records from his first presidency, including classified documents, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida rather than turning them over to the archives.
After being elected to a second term, Trump replaced Shogan with his secretary of state, Marco Rubio. And it was Rubio’s department that requested Eisenhower’s sword so the president could give it away.
I can only imagine what the response from the “America First” crowd would have been if a Democratic president had attempted a stunt like this.
Literally, I can only imagine, because we haven’t had a Democratic president (or to be fair, a Republican one other than Trump) who’s ignorant enough, arrogant enough and out-of-control enough to try to loot another president’s presidential library, so that he could play king of America and give a national treasure to the king of England.
Where’s the Kansas Congressional delegation?
AWOL, that’s where.
I checked my email, and the Facebook and X accounts of our esteemed congressmembers, and there’s not a peep from a Republican official, just their usual diatribes that can be summed up as “Republican good, Democrat bad.”
The only press release about this in my inbox is from Kansas Democratic state senator and governor candidate Cindy Holscher.
It says this: “Pressuring an army veteran and historian with 30 years of government service to resign or be fired because you wanted a sword from a museum is ludicrous. The Trump Administration is bullying people and threatening to remove them from their jobs if they fail to go along with their requests. President Eisenhower would be utterly disappointed with what’s happened to the Republican Party.”
I have to disagree with Sen. Holscher. It’s not “ludicrous.” Ludicrous is the president of the United States hawking golden sneakers with his name on them.
This is much worse. It’s reprehensible and utterly un-American.
And I suspect if Eisenhower were still alive, his reaction would be something beyond “disappointed.” If anyone knew how to put dictators and tyrants in their place, Ike was the man.
I’d really like to know where Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran stand on this — along with Reps. Ron Estes, Tracey Mann and Derek Schmidt.
Is the attempted robbery of a revered Kansas historical institution enough to jolt them into actually criticizing this president for once? Or are they too afraid that would put their names on the president’s revenge tour hit list of honorable people to be punished?
If they were true to their office and oath, they’d introduce legislation stating in no uncertain terms that the historical treasure houses of the United States are not a gift shop for the president to cherry-pick so he can impress foreign leaders.
And they’d introduce companion legislation making it clear that the guardians of those treasures work for the people of the United States, not for administration bootlickers.
I’m waiting. Kansas is waiting. I suspect we’ll all be waiting a long time.
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 1:59 PM.
