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The Trump administration fired the nation’s head librarian Thursday in a brief email, drawing criticism from New Mexico’s senior senator, Martin Heinrich.
As the nation’s librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden managed one of the world’s largest libraries, the U.S. Library of Congress. The library is home to the U.S. Copyright Office and is the main research arm for Congress. This is the latest in President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape cultural institutions, from canceling National Endowment for the Arts grants that did not align with the administration’s goals to overhauling Kennedy Center leadership.
“We felt she did not fit the needs of the American people. There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and putting inappropriate books in the library for children,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Friday.
On Friday, the Department of Defense also ordered its senior leaders to review library materials at military educational institutions to find materials that could “conflict with our core mission.” The library materials should be “mission focused and not promote divisive concepts and gender ideology,” a statement from Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, said.
Heinrich, D-N.M., ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, is highly critical of the decision to terminate Hayden.
“Over the course of her tenure, Dr. Hayden brought the Library of Congress to the people, with initiatives that reached into rural communities and made the Library accessible to all Americans, in person and online,” Heinrich said in a statement.
“While President Trump wants to ban books and tell Americans what to read — or not to read at all, Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to making reading and the pursuit of knowledge available to everyone.”
Hayden took the job in 2016 after being nominated for the position by former President Barack Obama. Librarians of Congress serve 10-year terms. She has worked on digitizing the library and making it more accessible to the public. She was also the first woman and the first African American to lead the library.
Principal Deputy Librarian Robert Newlen will serve as acting librarian of Congress, The Associated Press reported.
