‘My jaw dropped’: Ex-NSA workers stunned after museum covers names of women and minorities

President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-diversity executive action struck again – this time in the halls of the National Cryptologic Museum – where staff were ordered to cover up displays celebrating women and people of color who served at the National Security Agency, according to media reports.

The museum’s censorship stemmed from Trump’s order to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives across federal agencies, which threw some government departments into chaos as confusion over the extent of the action swirled, NPR reported.

Part of that confusion extended to the national museum, which taped sheets of brown paper over plaques in its Hall of Honor devoted to women and people of color. The Fort Meade, Maryland-based museum acknowledged covering up the plaques of the honorees, which are described as “Trailblazers in U.S. Cryptologic History,” and said in a social media post over the weekend that it had corrected the “mistake”

Outrage has far from simmered.

"My jaw dropped, my eyes bulged," former NSA employee Larry Pfeiffer, who spent two decades at the agency, told Politico. "Like one of those Warner Brothers' cartoons."

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Pfeiffer is just one of dozens of retired NSA employees who weren’t happy with the museum’s move – or satisfied with their response. Another former employee, Rob Johnson marched into the museum Monday morning and told the public relations staff “he was appalled,” Politico reported.

"As much as this administration eschews truth and honesty, it is important that we not allow it to erase history," Johnson is quoted as saying.

"Didn't somebody say, 'Oh my God, that's wrong?’” Helen Adams, another former NSA worker, questioned.

NSA Executive Director Sheila Thomas, the No. 3 official heading the agency, told NPR in a phone interview “that papering over the exhibits was a mistake.”

"There was absolutely never an intention to cover up parts of our history," said Thomas, who spent over four decades with the NSA and was at the museum to meet with the outraged retirees this week. “As soon as we became aware [of it], we said, 'Oh, that was not what was intended.’”