Trump administration fires librarian of Congress

The Trump administration fired the librarian of Congress, Carla D. Hayden, on Thursday, drawing swift outcry from Democrats. Hayden was the first African American and first woman to serve as the head of the institution.

Hayden, appointed as the 14th librarian of Congress by President Barack Obama in 2016, had overseen the library through President Donald Trump’s first term. The library, the oldest government-run cultural institution in the United States, only rarely gets a new leader. Hayden was its first since 1987.

She was fired in a two-sentence email from Trent Morse, the deputy director of White House personnel, according to a screenshot released by Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch.

“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately,” the email said, without citing a cause. “Thank you for your service.”

A spokesperson for the Library of Congress, Roswell Encina, confirmed the firing. Reached by phone, Hayden, 72, declined to comment.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, issued a statement describing Hayden as an “accomplished, principled and distinguished” leader of the library.

“Donald Trump’s unjust decision to fire Dr. Hayden in an email sent by a random political hack is a disgrace and the latest in his ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history and turn back the clock,” Jeffries said.

Morse did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Since returning to office, Trump has moved quickly to assert control over American cultural institutions, taking over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and declaring war on Ivy League universities.

A push to purge references to diversity and inclusion led to a page on Jackie Robinson’s life and military career temporarily vanishing from the Pentagon website. Arlington National Cemetery webpages highlighting the graves of Black and female service members disappeared. Books including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the novel by Harper Lee about racism in the Depression-era South, were purged from schools run by the Defense Department, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Library of Congress, which describes itself as the world’s largest library, is home to millions of items, with collections of books on foreign languages and world history, as well as music, films and newspapers. It serves as the research arm of Congress and is open to the public.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Hayden was widely admired by members of Congress.

“Her dismissal is not just an affront to her historic service but a direct attack on the independence of one of our most revered institutions,” DeLauro said in a statement.

Hayden became the librarian of Congress after a lengthy run as the chief librarian in Baltimore, her longtime home, where she had overhauled the city’s struggling public library system.

She had known Obama since her early days as a librarian working in the Chicago Public Library. She started as a librarian in Chicago in 1973 and ultimately became the city’s chief librarian.

But she harbored a special appreciation for the Library of Congress, which she called a “treasure chest.”

“It’s like heaven,” she said in a video published by the Obama White House when she was nominated to be librarian of Congress. In the video, she reflected on her status as the first female and first Black librarian of Congress, saying that her selection showed “what a national library can be.”

“It’s inclusive,” she said. “It can be part of everyone’s story. I believe in what libraries can be for a civilized society, and a country that is open to all.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company