Presidents of both parties defended libraries as allies of democracy for a century – until Trump

By Alex H. Poole, Drexel University, Fri, October 30, 2026 at 6:32 AM PDT, 6 min read

On March 31, 2026, President Donald Trump was asked about plans for his presidential library, the archive that presidents build to house their administration’s records.

His was most likely going to be a hotel, he said, with “a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.”

“I don’t believe in building libraries or museums,” he told reporters.

Trump’s comments reflect how he has diverged from the customary and expected presidential attitude toward libraries of all types. As an information science professor, I have analyzed statements by 17 presidents, beginning with Calvin Coolidge.

Combing their speeches, proclamations, messages and letters in the Public Papers of the Presidents, the American Presidency Project, the Federal Register and the American Library Association’s archives and publications, I have found that Trump has broken with a century-old tradition. Nearly all presidents of both parties since 1923 have described libraries, whether public, academic or presidential, as a prerequisite to a healthy democracy and as crucial to sustaining an informed citizenry.

Trump, however, has rarely spoken of libraries at all. When he has, he has dismissed them.

Libraries and democracy

In the 1920s, Republican Calvin Coolidge said that public libraries were “within the reach of almost everyone” and contained “the best books and authorities on any subject.” By using these institutions, he said, citizens could evaluate “current proposals for political improvement.”

Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt took up that theme as the U.S. edged toward World War II. In 1941, he opened his own presidential library, the first in what would become the National Archives’ system. At the dedication, FDR argued that libraries proliferated in democracies where citizens refuse to accept “so-called information as may be handed out to them by certain types of self-constituted leaders who decide what is best for them.”

The Cold War reinforced the emphasis on libraries as foundational to self-government.

Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower feared censorship during the Red Scare and urged a 1953 audience, “Don’t join the book burners.” He also set a precedent for federal library aid by signing the Library Services Act of 1956, which authorized up to US$7.5 million a year for developing public library services for rural Americans. Eisenhower’s successor, Democrat John F. Kennedy, likewise believed that “libraries should be open to all – except the censor.” Kennedy’s budgets continued funding public libraries.

Read more: Presidents of both parties defended libraries as allies of democracy for a century – until Trump – The Conversation

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