Trump wants a library. He must never have one.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Museums • Perspective

Trump wants a library. He must never have one.



A campaign sign for President Donald Trump is seen in the Capitol Reflecting Pool on Jan. 9. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

By Philip Kennicott
Art and architecture critic
Jan. 28, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EST

Former president Donald Trump will have an official portrait in the National Portrait Gallery at some point. And in states where he remains popular, he could have airports, bridges and schools named for him. But Trump must never have an official presidential library, and Congress should move quickly to make sure he never will.

Things would seem to be moving toward establishing a Trump library. On Jan. 20, the day he left office, the National Archives launched the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library website. Already, there are rumors that the former president is engaged with the idea of creating some kind of presidential center, perhaps run by longtime aide Dan Scavino, with a price tag as high as $2 billion. Even before Trump left office, a sophisticated parody site, djtrumplibrary.com, began attracting admirers for its sharp architectural and design satire on what has become the norm in presidential centers. But it also deftly skewered the larger scam that has become attached to the presidency: the use of presidential libraries and museums to entrench perpetual fundraising and hagiography as a permanent part of every post-presidential career.

[Trump incites an insurrection, but no one should have been surprised]

None of this, however, means that Trump could actually create a presidential center similar to the one planned for former president Barack Obama, or those dedicated to former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. As Anthony Clark, author of “The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity & Enshrine Their Legacies,” wrote recently in Politico, it is unlikely that Trump has the focus, administrative savvy and financial resources to execute a presidential center: “Presidential libraries are complicated. And if you understand how they work — and how Trump himself works — it’s nearly impossible to imagine him actually pulling it off,” Clark writes.

But that doesn’t mean that Trump won’t try and that, in trying, cause further damage to the country. That is why Congress should use this moment to reconsider the legislation that helped create and shape the presidential libraries now administered by the National Archives, not just to prevent Trump from perpetrating one last, giant grift, but to reform the system so it serves the country better. This is long overdue, and would need to be done even if Trump weren’t trying to raise $2 billion for a Trump center. But his intention to do so makes this urgent, even an issue of national security.

{snip}

Philip Kennicott
Philip Kennicott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning art and architecture critic of The Washington Post. He has been on staff at The Post since 1999, first as classical music critic, then as culture critic. Follow https://twitter.com/PhilipKennicott

[Best_man23]

1. I'd let him have a library, on one condition

That the library be located inside a federal prison where he is also doing time.

[NEOBuckeye]

3. Make it a porcelain toilet on a cracked concrete slab

A perfect tribute and wholly symbolic of his legacy.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. And how are you going to stop trump from having his library? I suspect that it'll be a money loser

like all of his other adventures, and that's it. Let him have it. This is a free Country. As long at it's at his own expense (or his idiot followers, no tax revenues).

[Chicago1980]

4. I though Twitter deleted his Liebrary?

Whatever.....

[getagrip_already]

5. presidential libraries are self funded.....

The gubberment doesn't provide any funds. If he wants to fund raise and build a monument to himself, have at it.

It will be bankrupt in a few years and there will be scandals lining the walls. He won't get contractors to work for free any more.

We could probably raise money and build one that would be fahhhbulous though. A shining tezstimant to cxorruption, vanity, ego, and narcisism. It would point out every failing, there would be a wall with 600,000 names on it for the covid victims. There would be a wall of shame detailing his selling the country out to putin and turnng his back on americans.

Or we could all get a milkshake and watch netflix. whatever.

[Deuxcents]

6. Yes, self funded

Thanks for reminding us of that. There for a minute, I forgot n was ready to flip out!

[Nitram]

7. I really don't care if he has a library, but I don't want to pay for it.

It'll be a cult shrine and an embarrassment to whoever community decides to host it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. give him a binder full of his tweets. that's his library full stop.

[marble falls]

9. Why does he want one? He's never used one.

[tanyev]

10. He wants a giant gilded gift shop, with all the walls covered with portraits of himself.

A large portion of funds collected will probably get redirected to Trump bank accounts, so a building may never get built. He’ll probably try to repurpose one of his empty hotels or golf clubs.

[marmar]

11. Too late.

[Lord Ludd]

12. They should buy the porn shop next to Four Seasons Total Landscaping

& just replace the current sign with "Trump Presidential Library." No other changes needed.

[EarnestPutz]

13. Go look at the parody website mentioned above. It is, as they say, pretty sophisticated.

djtrumplibrary.com

[nam78_two]

14. The jokes do write themselves

It would be a bizarre mixture of nazi propaganda and adult books .

[Paladin]

15. No sweat. I can find other Republican objects to piss in or on. (nt)

[flotsam]

16. I very much want a Trump Library/Museum

And I want it curated just like Auschwitz or any other Holocaust Museum with his shame memorialized for all time with the same slogan "Never Again"!