The temporary closure of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum due to the White House’s initiative to eliminate waste from the federal bureaucracy left critics fuming.
The Boston, Massachusetts-based library briefly shuttered on Tuesday afternoon after five employees who had worked ticket sales at the front desk were laid off in response to the Trump administration’s directive to lay off nearly all probationary federal workers. Although it reopened the following morning, the library’s closure sparked frustration from patrons, historians, and members of the Kennedy dynasty.
“We had a whole agenda set, but once I learned about the closure of the JFK library, we added it to our list because it was a must,” Katie Voss, who was visiting Boston with her husband and teenage son, told GBH News. “[I’m] very frustrated. I mean, why are we closing these national institutions down? What is the purpose?”
The JFK Library’s director, Alan Price, likewise lamented the news his employees had been cut.
“A lot of staff are surprised and saddened. All wonderful people and incredibly skilled,” he told the outlet.
The Library & Museum is waiving the $18 admission fee for the general public until they can train other staff members to work the ticket sales department at the front desk.
Fredrik Logevall, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School warned that it was “critically important that the libraries — and the museums attached to them — be open and fully staffed,” in a statement to the Harvard Crimson.
“Historians depend on these materials for their work,” he said.
Former President John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, expressed particular outrage on Tuesday, telling his followers on social media that “it’s time to speak out and resist what’s happening.”
“JFK sent a man to the moon, but you’d never know it if the JFK library wasn’t open and no one was allowed to talk about it,” Schlossberg said in a video posted to X. “They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American [people]. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with government efficiency. The workers who were fired today actually bring in revenue for the government.”
The five library staffers laid off this week were probationary employees, or federal workers who have typically been on the job for less than a year and have yet to gain civil service protection.
Thousands of such workers have been laid off in compliance with a Feb. 11 executive order from President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to “eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity” from the bureaucracy by “initiating large-scale reductions in force.” On February 13, the United States Office of Personnel Management issued a directive carrying out the executive order that instructed federal agencies to lay off most probationary employees.
“The probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment,” a spokesperson for OPM, which is the main human resources agency for the federal government, told the NBC News4 I-Team. “Agencies are taking independent action in light of the recent hiring freeze and in support of the president’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people at the highest possible standard.”
OPM’s order could affect 216,000 probationary employees or 9.4% of the total federal workforce.
The Department of Veterans Affairs subsequently announced it was letting go of 1,000 probationary employees, while the Internal Revenue Service will reportedly lay off roughly 6,000 probationary employees on Thursday.
Musk characterized DOGE’s initiative to reduce the federal workforce as an avenue to restore the bureaucracy to “the will of the people” during an interview with Trump on Tuesday.
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“ I think what we’re seeing here is the sort of the thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people,” he said in response to critics of DOGE. “All we’re really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. And, and what we’re finding is there’s an unelected bureaucracy.”
Musk added that saving taxpayer dollars through government cuts comes down to “competence and caring.”
