Trump Fires Biden Nominees to Holocaust Memorial Council

President Trump has dismissed many of former President Joe Biden's nominees to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, including Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris. The board oversees the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Emhoff, who is Jewish and who led the Biden administration's efforts to combat antisemitism, criticized Trump's action, saying in a statement, "Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized." He added, "To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous—and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve." Politico notes that Emhoff is the first Jewish person in US history to be married to a president or vice president.

• Others dismissed alongside Emhoff include former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain and former domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, who was the principal author of and the impetus behind the first-ever comprehensive National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism in 2023, the AP reports.
• Emhoff and several others fired on Tuesday were appointed in January to terms that typically last five years, the New York Times reports.
• "President Trump looks forward to appointing new individuals who will not only continue to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, but who are also steadfast supporters of the State of Israel," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
• Former Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, appointed to the board by Biden in March 2024, was among those fired Tuesday. "This action is deeply disappointing," he said, per the Times. "The museum's work has always been nonpartisan and should remain so. It is meant to challenge us all to think critically and clearly about our role in society, to confront antisemitism and all other forms of hate."

(More National Holocaust Museum stories.)