The John F. Kennedy (JFK) Presidential Library and Museum reopened Wednesday, with free admission, a day after the historic Boston institution was abruptly shut down after multiple employees were suddenly fired in the latest wave of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to come to federal employees.
Director Alan Price said admission to the museum will remain free in the coming days as senior employees fill in at the front desk and take over ticketing, although those employees still need to be cross-trained, reported the Boston Globe.
“As the Foundation that supports the JFK Library, we [were] devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the Library,” the nonprofit John F. Kennedy (JFK) Library Foundation told Fast Company in a statement.
In an effort to slash the size of the federal government, the Trump administration and DOGE have advised agencies to dismiss most of the 200,000 workers still in their probationary periods, working less than two years at their job.
The National Archives and Records Administration, which manages many of the the nation’s presidential libraries, told Fast Company that “the Archives staff looks forward to welcoming guests, visitors, and researchers,” but had no further comment.
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration, posted on Instagram that “DOGE and The White House” were behind the shutdown.
“Our country is under attack from our own government. They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American people,” wrote Schlossberg, whose mother, Caroline Kennedy, is honorary president of the Library Foundation. “In my opinion, it has nothing to do with government efficiency, the workers who were fired today actually bring in revenue for the government, it’s really about stealing the past . . . so that people don’t know what’s really happening.” (Schlossberg’s post had 67,366 likes at the time of this writing.)
Elsewhere on social media, one Bluesky user posted, “Closing down museums and national parks isn’t ‘weeding out corruption.’ But it is a sign of authoritarian rule.”
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren also took to Bluesky to say: “Trump’s shutdown of the JFK Library won’t lower egg prices or make housing more affordable, but it’s part of a retribution tour designed to distract from his agenda to enrich the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else.”
As the New York Times pointed out, the JFK Library Foundation has previously honored Trump critics including Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney. Romney, a Republican former Utah senator and presidential nominee, was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, while Cheney spoke out against the January 6 attack on the Capitol, making her a target of Trump’s wrath and costing her Wyoming seat in the House of Representatives.
