In yet one more surprising show of energy and partisanship, President Donald Trump has fired Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress.
For these unfamiliar together with her, Dr. Carla Hayden is a trailblazer — the primary girl and the primary African American to ever maintain the celebrated position of Librarian of Congress, an establishment usually described because the “Folks’s Library”; however apparently, her dedication to creating data accessible to all was an issue for the Trump administration.
Hayden’s abrupt dismissal was confirmed in an electronic mail despatched by the White Home’s Presidential Personnel Workplace on Thursday night. The e-mail, chilly, casual, and unpresidential, learn: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I’m writing to tell you that your place because the Librarian of Congress is terminated efficient instantly. Thanks in your service.” A traditional Trumpian strategy — no ceremony, no gratitude, simply an ax dropped from above.
What did Carla Hayden do to deserve this unceremonious exit? In line with the conservative advocacy group American Accountability Basis (AAF), she was responsible of selling “woke” content material and “radical” kids’s books. Translation: she dared to make the Library of Congress a spot the place various views had been valued and the place American historical past was proven in all its complexity. AAF’s president Tom Jones went as far as to say that the Library wanted to be introduced again in keeping with an “America First” agenda. As a result of, apparently, making literature, historical past, and data accessible to all People is now thought of radical.
THANK YOU @POTUS!!!!
Woke & radical Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired!
https://t.co/memq7ApcK8
— American Accountability Basis (@Theswampmonitor) Could 9, 2025
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However that is about extra than simply Carla Hayden dropping her job; this determination is a transparent continuation of the Trump administration’s broader purge of public servants who don’t align with its agenda. Whether or not it’s firing FEMA officers who dare to disagree with Trump’s chaotic catastrophe response technique or axing high-ranking ladies on the Pentagon, this administration has proven a constant sample: loyalty to Trump is extra essential than expertise, experience, or public service.
That is significantly troubling given the position of the Library of Congress. This isn’t simply any federal company. It’s the largest library on the planet, a repository of American historical past, tradition, and data. From the non-public papers of U.S. Presidents to uncommon books, pictures, and artifacts, the Library is a treasure trove of American heritage. Underneath Carla Hayden’s management, it turned much more accessible, with initiatives that introduced its assets into rural communities and expanded its digital collections, however in Trump’s America, a dedication to inclusion and training makes you a goal.
Predictably, Democrats have come out in full pressure, condemning Hayden’s firing as an assault on data and a blatant try and rewrite historical past. Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer referred to as Hayden “a trailblazer, a scholar, and a public servant of the best order.” Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro described her dismissal as “callous,” and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries didn’t mince phrases, declaring that Trump’s determination was a part of his ongoing effort to “ban books, whitewash American historical past, and switch again the clock.”
My assertion on the unjust termination of Dr. Carla Hayden as Librarian of Congress by a failed President. pic.twitter.com/xjoD8Qc3oq
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) Could 9, 2025
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Hayden’s firing is not only a loss for the Library of Congress. It’s a loss for each American who believes that data needs to be accessible to all, that historical past needs to be preserved in its fullness, and {that a} public servant’s obligation is to serve the individuals, not a political agenda. In an period when reality is continually beneath assault, the elimination of somebody who has devoted her life to creating data obtainable to all is nothing wanting a nationwide tragedy.
However this isn’t simply one other story of a professional girl being proven the door; it’s a message. A nation that permits data to be managed by politics is a nation doomed to repeat its darkest errors, and we’re watching historical past be rewritten in real-time.
If we don’t test Trump’s overreach now, the following purge could not simply goal librarians — it could goal our very proper to know, to be taught, and to assume for ourselves.
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