JFK Library in Dorchester temporarily closed due to workers’ ‘sudden dismissal.’ National Archives says it will reopen Wednesday. – The Boston Globe

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Dorchester abruptly closed Tuesday afternoon after a handful of junior employees were laid off under the Trump administration’s directive to fire probationary employees across the federal government.The closure came around 2 p.m. and was forced by “the sudden dismissal of federal employees” at the library, according to a statement from the JFK Library Foundation. The foundation said it was “devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the Library.”Later Tuesday afternoon, the National Archives and Records Administration, which manages many of the the nation’s presidential libraries, said the Kennedy library will reopen Wednesday.“The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will be open tomorrow, and the National Archives staff looks forward to welcoming guests, visitors, and researchers,” the NARA statement said.AdvertisementHowever brief, the closure of the library was one of the myriad knock-on effects from President Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk’s high-speed efforts to reduce the federal government by summarily dismissing tens of thousands of public employees, freezing or cutting funding, and outright eliminating entire government agencies.“I saw a note saying the library will be open tomorrow, which is great news, but it belies the point that somebody in our government thought the right way to try to squeeze out efficiencies, to balance our budget, to pass tax cuts for the wealth was gutting libraries, which is a scary thing to think about,” former congressman Joe Kennedy III, a grandson of John F. Kennedy’s brother Robert F. Kennedy, said in an interview.“That these orders are coming at the request, presumably, of the richest man on Earth who has it in his eyes that we’ve got to gut government when much of his own wealth is the result of government contracts through Tesla, SpaceX . . . the whole thing is gross.”Moreover, the JFK Library appeared to be the only one of the 13 completed presidential libraries managed by the National Archives and Records Administration that was closed without a reason Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California said it “has not been impacted.”The websites of the Harry S. Truman library in Independence, Mo., and the Dwight D. Eisenhower library in Abilene, Kan., both said they were closed because of winter weather. The Herbert Hoover library in West Branch, Iowa., was closed to visitors on Jan. 20 for a lengthy renovation and is not scheduled to reopen until the summer of 2026.AdvertisementBoth the suddenness and scale of Trump’s cuts to the federal bureaucracy have triggered widespread chaos, confusion, and outrage from fired workers and many of the nonprofits and businesses that were affected by the reductions in federal funding.Perched at the edge of Columbia Point in Dorchester with a dramatic vista of Boston Harbor, the JFK Library was dedicated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and remains a popular tourist destination.The library was notified by the National Archives on Tuesday afternoon that it had to dismiss five probationary employees, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Probationary workers generally have less than a year of service in the federal government and have no job protection.At the JFK Library, the five probationary employees mainly worked in museum admissions, and the institution’s leadership decided to close for the day because no one else was available to staff those jobs, the person said.“There’s a lot of confusion and disruption and I think people are really shaken by it,” the person said.Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson, said on Instagram that Trump’s federal cost-cutting agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, was behind the closure and the National Archives had instructed the library “to fire probationary staff effective immediately and until further notice.”Advertisement“They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American” people,” said Schlossberg, whose mother, Caroline Kennedy, is honorary president of the library foundation.The closure came after the Trump administration last week ordered agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection, a move that could affect hundreds of thousands of workers.On Tuesday, a federal judge declined to immediately block Musk and the DOGE from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs, after 14 Democratic states filed a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s authority to access sensitive government data.The Trump administration has maintained that layoffs are coming from agency heads and asserted that despite his public cheering of the effort, Musk isn’t running DOGE’s day-to-day operations himself, but instead serves as a senior adviser to Trump.Later Tuesday, The New York Times reported Trump said during a news conference that he was “not at all” concerned about the specifics involved in dismissing so many probationary workers.But in a post on X, Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey said Trump and Musk had “arbitrarily fired staff” at the JFK library.“Shutting down this vital place of learning, engagement, and revenue creation, if even for a day isn’t just wrong—it degrades the very office of the President,” he wrote.He was joined by his senate colleague Elizabeth Warren and Governor Maura Healey in condemning Trump’s workforce cuts.The closure comes after Trump on Jan. 23 ordered the declassification of the remaining federal government records on the 1963 assassination of Kennedy. Jefferson Morley, editor of the JFK Facts blog, said that copies of any JFK Library documents deemed by the government to be related to the assassination are held at the National Archives facility in College Park, Md.AdvertisementThe acting archivist of the United States and several senior staff members have resigned in recent days, according to media reports.The aggressive rollout of Trump’s plan to slash the federal workforce has also hit the National Park Service, which fired about 1,000 newly hired employees under the downsizing effort, raising concerns about staffing levels at the service’s 428 parks and historic sites.Adding to the confusion, the park service now says it is reinstating about 5,000 seasonal jobs that were initially rescinded last month as part of a spending freeze ordered by Trump.It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether the JFK library staffers who were let go will be reinstated.Camilo Fonseca of the Globe staff and correspondent Rita Chandler contributed to this report. Material from Globe wire services was also used.Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.Digital AccessHome DeliveryGift SubscriptionsLog InManage My AccountCustomer ServiceDelivery IssuesFeedbackNews TipsHelp & FAQsStaff ListAdvertiseNewslettersView the ePaperOrder Back IssuesNews in EducationSearch the ArchivesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of PurchaseWork at Boston Globe MediaInternship ProgramCo-op ProgramDo Not Sell My Personal Information

Source: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/18/metro/jfk-library-closed-dorchester/