The White House has fired members of an outside advisory group to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the latest effort to bring the agency in line with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
The firings were made in an email sent Wednesday morning to members of the National Council on the Humanities by Mary Sprowls, a staff member at the White House’s Office of Presidential Personnel.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Council on the Humanities is terminated, effective immediately,” she wrote in the email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. “Thank you for your service.”
The council, whose members typically include 26 private citizens drawn mostly from the scholarly world, meets several times a year to advise the endowment’s chair on grants, as well as on ways to promote and strengthen the humanities more generally.
It was not immediately clear how many members, all of whom were confirmed by the Senate, were dismissed. The endowment’s website currently lists just four members, all appointed during Trump’s first term.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The endowment itself is closed because of the government shutdown.
The firings appear to be the latest move by the White House to tighten control over the endowment, which Trump repeatedly called to shutter in his first term. In February, the previous chair, Shelly C. Lowe, a Biden appointee, resigned at Trump’s direction. In April, the endowment abruptly canceled most existing grants, citing plans to redirect the agency to furthering “the president’s agenda.” It also moved to terminate more than half the agency’s staff of about 180.
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