Blumenthal Calls on Trump to Reinstate Biden Appointees to Holocaust Museum Board

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on President Donald Trump to reinstate members of the board that oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who were apparently fired based on their political affiliations. Earlier this week, and just a few days after the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Trump removed a number of board members previously appointed by President Joe Biden. Board members are typically appointed to five-year terms.

“By turning Holocaust remembrance into a political loyalty test, you are doing precisely what the museum warns against—using institutional power to punish dissent, erase opposing views, and recast history through the lens of political expediency,” Blumenthal wrote. “In short, you are politicizing an institution created to guard against the political abuses that led to the Holocaust in the first place.”

“My father escaped Nazi persecution in 1935 at the age of eighteen, arriving in this country with little more than the shirt on his back, speaking hardly any English and knowing virtually no one. This country— the greatest on earth— gave him a chance to succeed. The Holocaust Museum has special meaning to me, and countless other Americans, regardless of political affiliation.”

The full text of Blumenthal’s letter is available here and copied below.

Dear President Trump,

Your decision to fire several members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council who were appointed by President Biden – Douglas Emhoff, Ron Klain, Susan Rice, Tom Perez, Anthony Bernal, David Cicilline, and others – reveals a stunning contempt for the apolitical nature of Holocaust remembrance and a disturbing willingness to exploit even the memory of genocide for partisan gain.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum exists not to serve any President’s political agenda but to bear witness to the truth of what happens when hate is unchecked and when the power of the state is used to silence, scapegoat, and destroy. That you would purge its governing council based solely on the appointees’ affiliations with a prior administration is not only petty and vindictive, but also a direct affront to the values the museum exists to uphold.

Your action makes a mockery of the very mission the museum was created to pursue. The Holocaust Museum plays a unique role in educating the public about the horrors of authoritarianism, antisemitism, and state-sponsored persecution. By turning Holocaust remembrance into a political loyalty test, you are doing precisely what the museum warns against – using institutional power to punish dissent, erase opposing views, and recast history through the lens of political expediency. In short, you are politicizing an institution created to guard against the political abuses that led to the Holocaust in the first place.

These dismissals are not merely symbolic. They tell the country, and the world, that even the sacred memory of six million murdered Jews is not off-limits to your culture of retribution. That you would desecrate the museum’s independence to settle political scores is a deep insult to the survivors and their families, to the entire Jewish community, and to all communities who look to the museum as a beacon of truth and accountability. My father escaped Nazi persecution in 1935 at the age of eighteen, arriving in this country with little more than the shirt on his back, speaking hardly any English and knowing virtually no one. This country – the greatest on earth – gave him a chance to succeed. The Holocaust Museum has special meaning to me, and countless other Americans, regardless of political affiliation.

History will remember not just the decisions we make, but the reasons behind them. And this decision – petty, vindictive, and utterly unjustifiable – will be remembered with shame and disgrace.

I urge you to reverse these firings and restore the dignity of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council before more irreparable harm is done.

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