BOSTON, USA - OCTOBER 28: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA, USA is the presidential library and museum of the 35th president of the USA photographed on October 28, 2013. (Photo credit: Marcio Jose Bastos Silva / Shutterstock)
A flurry of mass firings at agencies across the federal government ushered in by President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency triggered the abrupt closure Tuesday of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
The Boston-based library began its first round of firings Thursday when leadership received an order from the National Archives informing them to terminate probationary employees, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III told Politico Tuesday.
Firings led to the closure on Tuesday afternoon.
“The library cannot function with that type of reduction,” a source with knowledge of the situation told Politico in a statement. A sign posted outside the institute and circulating throughout social media reads: “Due to the executive order, the JFK Library will be closed until further notice."
“The sudden dismissal of federal employees at the JFK Library forced the museum to close today,” the JFK Library Foundation said in a statement. “As the Foundation that supports the JFK Library, we are devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the Library."
The National Archives said the library “will be open tomorrow, and the National Archives staff looks forward to welcoming guests, visitors, and researchers,” according to Politico.
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Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK, quickly used the shuttering of the library’s doors to pounce on the Trump administration.
“DOGE and the White House shut down the JFK Library,” Schlossberg said in a social media post Tuesday. “Hey, it’s Jack – I’m okay but our country is not. It’s under attack from its own government. They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American people.”
He went on to say the goal of the mass firings and axing of government funds is not about “government efficiency, the workers who were fired today actually bring in revenue for the government.”
Schlossberg then pointed to a picture above him that he says was given to him by an astronaut.
“JFK sent a man to the moon, but you’d never know it if the JFK library wasn’t open and nobody was allowed to talk…it’s time to speak out and resist what’s happening,” he said. “If you’re not doing that you’re not helping the darkest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”
The news came after last week's unprecedented MAGA overhaul of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.