Trump Visits Roosevelt Library on Qatari Air Force One

President Donald Trump visited North Dakota on Wednesday to attend the dedication ceremony of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the life of America’s 26th president. The library is built in the rugged landscape where the young easterner developed his conservation values while ranching and hunting in the 1880s.

The event marks the beginning of celebrations for America's 250th anniversary, with the library opening over the weekend on July 4. Trump came early to see the $450 million project, which was championed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum when he was governor of North Dakota. The library joins more than a dozen such libraries throughout the country examining the lives and legacies of U.S. presidents.

Trump will be the library's first official visitor, and spoke at a nearby Western-themed amphitheater at an event run by Freedom 250, a group billed as nonpartisan that he has tapped to organize the festivities. On Friday, Trump also plans to visit South Dakota's Mount Rushmore for Independence Day fireworks, as he did in 2020.

The library features artifacts and exhibits on Roosevelt's life, including his conservation ideas and Rough Riders regiment of the Spanish-American War. Visitors will also learn about Roosevelt's 'horrific comments' about Native Americans and other issues that have aged poorly. The facility is expected to draw families and thousands of school children from the region.

The Dakota Resource Council hosted several conservation leaders who criticized Burgum and Trump for policies they say contradict Roosevelt's conservation principles, such as cutting staff and budgets and prioritizing energy development on public lands. Last year Burgum signed an order prioritizing the openness and accessibility of parks to the public amid the workforce cuts.

President Donald Trump flew to North Dakota aboard a Qatari-gifted plane, marking his first official flight since its refurbishment as Air Force One. The new plane is a refurbished 747-8 with red, white and navy blue and gold paint, designed to be used until two new Boeing planes are ready in 2028.

Trump’s trip marked the debut of a refurbished Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar that will serve as Air Force One. Against a dramatic landscape of eroded hills, deep ravines, and layered rock, Trump emulated Roosevelt’s whistle-stop tours by taking a short journey on a train painted red, white, and blue with bunting and the words 'Freedom', 'Liberty', and '1776-2026'. The train halted at a railroad crossing with horn blasting and bell ringing as a crowd chanted 'Go, Trump!' and 'USA! USA!'.

Trump toured the new 96,000 sq ft library, which overlooks a national park named for Roosevelt because of the formative years he spent in the Badlands. He visited a room named after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and his wife Kathryn, and conversed with a digitally animated version of Roosevelt.

Trump delivered an hour-long address at the nearby Burning Hills Amphitheatre despite a faulty teleprompter. He praised Roosevelt as 'a great he-man' and 'a proud man', insisting: 'I’m a proud man, I’m proud of our country.' He announced that the National Endowment for the Humanities will award the library $750,000 to support its first year.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended President Donald Trump’s initiatives to address infrastructure in Washington, D.C., calling it proof that America is rejecting 'decline by choice'. As part of the 250th celebration, Trump has spent $14.7 million to restore the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool, allocated $250 million to restore the Kennedy Center and is on track to spend over $400 million on the construction of a ballroom at the White House.

The Department of the Interior, which has overseen many of the improvements, further updated its accomplishments ahead of July 4. The city has removed 510 instances of graffiti, removed 154 homeless encampments, applied 212 tons of repair materials to roads and parkways, restored 280,000 square feet of roadway paving, rehabilitated 1,301 benches and fixed 1,913 lights.

Burgum said the repairs were emblematic of the administration’s aggressive posture towards addressing problems that had gone ignored in the past. In addition to these major improvements, DOI has restored and cleaned dozens of monuments and statues around DC.