This will be his final form. 'tain’t priteeee.
Really Trump should have a lot of forms in his future to try to account for things, and these ones shouldn’t be blank page stacks or bullet points with pictures either.
Decon-tech: “I am now… op[static]ning the Oval Offi[static] door. I am now [static]tering the Oval Office.”
Decon-supervisor: “Copy. Let us know if you need immediate evac.”
“Presidenting is hard, bigly hard”
Gozer:
Sub-creatures! Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, the Traveller has come! Choose and perish!
Ray Stantz:
What do you mean, choose? We don’t understand!
Gozer:
Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!
I am sure he signed the desk with a sharpie.
Seems like it’s similar to other online presidential libraries.
Here’s President Obama’s
I don’t know would people rather we burn everything associated with Trump’s time in office and fuck over later historians who can help future generations put his presidency into context?
Fortunately it is maintained by the National Archives, so it is a repository of Trumpian propaganda but is not Trumpian propaganda itself.
Of course it’s maintained by the National Archives. That’s literally their job. To archive records of the Federal government.
And you could argue that much of the public facing documents of ANY president is propaganda. But of course this set of documents will also include plenty of internal documents of the workings of the administration that are necessary to writing presidential histories. Do people think presidential historians just make shit up? They need these papers to put historical narratives together. I’d actually argue that a presidency like Trump’s we actually need MORE documentation, not less.
Is it ever going to be a physical building?
I really like the concept of the presidential library. What could be more classy and satisfying than getting a library in a place you care about and presumably an architectural style that represents what you are about and a place people can come to study your legacy. It’s one of those things America really got right. It feels almost like what a Star Trek society would do for its retired politicians.
But a Trump library? I’m ambivalent about it. Of course building a centre of study of this period is important, as @anon61221983 says. On the other hand such a building is always a bit of a shrine to its sponsor, whether intended or not.
A good question. If not, they’ll be housed in one of the NARA buildings in DC (I’m guessing) or perhaps the NY branch (since he’s from NYC).
Yes. It’s critical that the archives are well-maintained and preserved. Having the former president work to preserve their own administration and fund raise for a location has been the case since Roosevelt began to build his in 1938 (according to this):
https://www.trumplibrary.gov/about-us/about-national-archives-and-presidential-libraries
And yes, most presidential libraries also have museums and other displays attached, but they are also well-maintained archives by professionals, which abide by all the rules set down for public access to such material. I’ve been to the Carter Library, for example for archive work. Of course, it’s also the home of the Carter Center and hosts events for public speakers of all kinds:
https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/
I saw Ta-Nehisi Coates there once.
So yes, it’s a bit of archiving and a bit of mythologizing. Whether Trump will get a building is up to him, but now, since Obama, everything will be digitized and archived online, too.
It will be more like one of those street side neighborhood book nooks only empty, abandoned and boarded up.
This might serve, although it would need a lid – uh – roof.
They have to keep all those notes, crumpled, torn, and then reassembled by interns, somewhere.
“He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
I love Greta!
One of the first thing that I was taught when I was studying history at Ruskin College was how propaganda tells us a lot about how society was at the time it was published, even if the propaganda itself was entirely lies.
I wish that I had been taught that at school.
And I’d add that most outward facing public documents published by a government is going to be propaganda to some degree, as it’s always about generating positive attention for the administration. Think of Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats or whenever the Queen makes a public statement. And of course, not all propaganda is bad, it’s just a thing that governments in the mass media age do to talk to and convince the public on a variety of things. I think we all probably agree that the various New Deal programs were good, but the Roosevelt administration put out a ton of what could be considered propaganda to promote those programs, too.