President Donald Trump is changing the nation’s high librarian with somebody he trusts implicitly—as a result of that somebody as soon as defended him in court docket.
The White Home confirmed to Forbes that Trump intends to call Deputy Lawyer Basic Todd Blanche, his former private legal professional, because the performing librarian of Congress. The transfer, first reported by CBS Information, comes simply days after Trump fired Carla Hayden, a extremely revered librarian who’d held the function since 2016, in what critics are calling a unadorned political purge.
Blanche isn’t simply any Justice Division official—he was certainly one of Trump’s lead legal professionals within the president’s prison hush cash trial, the place a jury discovered Trump responsible on 34 felony counts. Now a person with no obvious background in library science is being tapped to supervise certainly one of America’s oldest and most important cultural establishments.
It’s a traditional Trump play: sideline a longtime public servant, then hand the keys to a loyalist. The shake-up suits a broader sample of Trump staffing highly effective posts with allies whereas torching range, fairness, and inclusion efforts throughout authorities.
Hayden—the primary lady and first Black particular person to guide the Library of Congress—was dismissed final week below obscure and incendiary accusations. White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed she was fired for allegedly pursuing range initiatives and offering “inappropriate books” to kids—a weird cost provided that the Library of Congress isn’t a lending library and doesn’t serve patrons below 16 except they’re accompanied by an grownup.
In actuality, Hayden, who was 9 years into her 10-year time period, had earned broad popularity of modernizing the library and making its huge collections extra accessible. However in immediately’s MAGA world, being a Black lady with a observe file of reform made her a simple goal for right-wing smears.
Simply earlier than her dismissal, the conservative American Accountability Basis attacked Hayden as “anti-Trump” and accused her of “trans-ing kids,” urging the White Home to “get her OUT and hire a new guy.”
They acquired precisely that. And sure, it issues that the “new guy” is a white man whose most important qualification seems to be serving to Trump dodge jail time.
Hayden’s firing is a part of a wider assault by the Trump administration on civil servants seen as disloyal—or just too unbiased.
In current weeks, Trump has purged a number of officers as a part of what critics are calling a campaign in opposition to range and dissent. Over the weekend, Trump additionally fired U.S. Copyright Workplace Director Shira Perlmutter, who was appointed by Hayden in 2020. Her ouster got here very shortly after her workplace launched a report on copyright protections and AI, elevating suspicions that even data-driven coverage work is now politically dangerous.
Democrats slammed Trump’s firing of Hayden. Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer referred to as for stripping the presidency of appointment energy over the place altogether.
Presidents shouldn’t “treat federal appointments like reality TV prizes,” he stated, calling the dismissal an assault on institutional integrity.
The librarian of Congress isn’t some ceremonial figurehead. The function oversees important arms of presidency, together with the U.S. Copyright Workplace and the Congressional Analysis Service. It’s a put up rooted in scholarship, preservation, and public service—at the least, it was once.
Trump, in the meantime, has lengthy harbored animosity towards the humanities and humanities. He’s repeatedly sought to slash funding for the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Providers. And now the backlash is beginning to spill over. CNN reported that a number of performers from the upcoming “Les Misérables” manufacturing on the Kennedy Performing Arts Middle plan to boycott the June 11 efficiency if Trump attends.
Blanche will take over from Principal deputy librarian Robert Newlen, who briefly stepped in after Hayden’s dismissal. However the message is unmistakable: Trump isn’t simply rewriting historical past—he’s putting in yes-men to manage the archives.
