President Donald Trump delivers his speech as King Charles III and the Princess of Wales listen during the Sept. 17, 2025, banquet at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England (Yui Mok/Getty Images).
Have you heard the one about a ceremonial sword, the Trump administration and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene?
It’s no joke, unfortunately.
It’s also not as cutting an anecdote as you may think. After hearing from ousted library director Todd Arrington, I’m left with more questions than answers. National and local media covered the story in such a way that readers could believe that Arrington was fired after refusing to give the Trump administration a fancy sword from the Eisenhower library. The president wanted to present a memento to Britain’s King Charles during his September state visit.
In reality, Arrington worked with the administration to secure a saber from West Point and was complimented about his handling of the situation.
“The day that the president gave the sword to the king, I got a message from my boss’s boss saying: ‘The sword has been presented. It all went great. You did a great job. Thank you for all your help,’ ” he told me.
So we don’t know for certain why Arrington was ousted from the job where he served for a bit more than a year. To hear him tell it, he had gotten on well with staff and the Eisenhower family and was making connections to Abilene.
A lifetime civil servant and Army veteran, Arrington has written books about presidential history and previously served at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. Nothing in his record or interactions about the sword suggested someone trying to make a political point or otherwise grandstand. He’s just not that kind of guy.
When I reached him by phone Saturday, he was driving his father from the Wichita airport. Arrington still wasn’t quite sure what had happened.
“I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t know. I never had any indication that anyone thought I’d done anything wrong. So what happened is a mystery to me. I have no idea. I would love to know. I have reached out to superiors at the National Archives, and I have not had anyone call me back.”
In our conversation, the former librarian was at pains to tell me that none of the national or local reporting about his departure had been 100% accurate. That’s catnip to a journalist like yours truly, who’s always on the search for untold stories.
Arrington didn’t single out any account for praise or blame, but he said he didn’t think President Donald Trump or First Lady Melania Trump had any inkling of issues with the sword.
“At no time did anyone express to me that the president or the first lady had anything to do with this,” he said. The former library director added that “I thought we provided some good service. We helped them find the thing they were looking for by getting them eventually to West Point.”
For reference, Eisenhower was raised in Abilene and served as Allied commander during World War II. He briefly served as president of Columbia University, helped found NATO and then served as president from 1953 to 1961. He was a moderate Republican, a sober statesman and an implacable foe of fascism. Who knows what he would make of this moment in history, or how he might advise his fellow Americans.
I’m no Ike, and you don’t have to like me. But I have some thoughts.
Throughout the past nine months, I’ve repeatedly urged my family, friends and Kansas Reflector readers to exercise caution with news media consumption. Not because we don’t live in challenging and scary times, but precisely because of that. When humans believe they’re under siege, they see threats everywhere. They’re more likely to believe scary stories of government overreach and brewing authoritarianism.
They might be right! Regardless, we live in an attention economy, driven by social media gadflies and AI slop. Commentators abound who will feed your fear no matter the facts. Be wary of them.
It may be that some MAGA world dispute drove Arrington’s forced resignation. But he doesn’t know that, and we don’t know that. Living with uncertainty is OK.
We can, however, reach some conclusions about those in the Trump administration. We know that at least a few people wanted to take a sword from a presidential library and use it as a gift for another country’s king. We know that they were willing to do so regardless of federal law (read Anthony Clark’s in-depth account on his “The Last Campaign” blog).
This alone tells us a lot.
It tells us that the Trump administration sees the nation’s treasures and heritage as possessions of the president. It sees our shared institutions as storehouses of plunder that it can hand out to impress peers. Arrington’s refusal to meet that initial demand was principled and courageous. He showed good faith in helping locate a replacement blade, but I worry that gave the initial request more legitimacy than it deserved.
He had big plans for the library in Abilene. He was preparing for America’s 250th birthday next year and overseeing new initiatives.
“We were looking forward to a lot of success,” Arrington said. “We were planning a new film. So we were working with a great company to get a new film made. We were just looking into the future, both short term and long term.”
For now, Arrington has been left unemployed. As too often happens in today’s hyper-partisan world, headlines focus on firings and palace intrigue, while discounting the actual human cost.
“All I care about right now is I need to find a new job,” he said. “I have a wife. I have children. I am trying to pick up the pieces and find the next thing. I’ve told everybody I’ve talked to if there was any way to go back to this job, it really was a dream job for me. And if there’s a way to get back to it, I would love to do that. I don’t know if that’s possible, or if anybody would consider that, but that would be my best-case scenario.”
I hope that Arrington can continue to serve the people of Kansas. I fear that too many people think they know the punchline to let him do so.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
This story was originally produced by Kansas Reflector, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Missouri Independent, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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