[257]
Eisenhower's administration contributed to the McCarthyist Lavender Scare[258] with President Eisenhower issuing Executive Order 10450 in 1953.[259] During Eisenhower's presidency thousands of lesbian and gay applicants were barred from federal employment and over 5,000 federal employees were fired under suspicions of being homosexual.[260][261] From 1947 to 1961 the number of firings based on sexual orientation were far greater than those for membership in the Communist Party,[260] and government officials intentionally campaigned to make "homosexual" synonymous with "Communist traitor" such that LGBT people were treated as a national security threat stemming from the belief they were susceptible to blackmail and exploitation.[262]

Relations with Congress
Official White House Portrait of President Eisenhower, c. 1960
Eisenhower had a Republican Congress for only his first two years in office; in the Senate, Republicans held the majority by a one-vote margin. Despite being Eisenhower's political opponent for the 1952 Republican presidential nomination, Senator Majority Leader Robert A. Taft assisted Eisenhower a great deal by promoting the President's proposals among the "Old Guard" Republican Senators. Taft's death in July 1953 - six months into Eisenhower's presidency - affected Eisenhower both personally and professionally. 