The making of Trump’s presidential library
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
Historically, presidential libraries have been used as research hubs to house documents and artifacts from a president’s time in the White House. They’re also a living monument to a president’s legacy.
Less than a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, planning for his presidential library is underway, with $50 million already raised from undisclosed donors.
Co-host Colby Itkowitz speaks with national political investigative reporter Michael Kranish about how presidential libraries and museums are usually created and why Trump’s private fundraising foundation could allow history to be misrepresented at his future library.
Today’s show was produced by Thomas Lu and mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick. Thanks to Dan Eggen.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Historically, presidential libraries have been used as sort of research hubs to house documents |
| 0:07.9 | and artifacts from a president's time in the White House. |
| 0:10.6 | They're also a monument to a president's legacy. |
| 0:13.8 | The planning for President Trump's library is well underway. |
| 0:17.8 | I can promise you it's going to be the greatest shrine to the greatest president of this country has ever had. |
| 0:22.7 | And I promise you, I mean, it's going to be the greatest structure ever created for a president by far. |
| 0:29.0 | It's going to be the greatest library ever envisioned. |
| 0:31.3 | That is Eric Trump, Trump's oldest son. |
| 0:34.3 | He was giving an interview on a conservative-leaning podcast back in the fall. |
| 0:38.7 | Eric Trump was talking about the creation of his father's presidential library. |
| 0:44.3 | Trump has raised $50 million from undisclosed donors to build it, and the state of Florida |
| 0:50.5 | has gifted Trump acres of land in downtown Miami for it. What's less clear |
| 0:55.3 | is what will be in the library. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post |
| 1:03.9 | reports. I'm Kolby Ekowitz. It's Monday, December 15th. Today I speak with investigative |
| 1:09.8 | reporter Michael Kranish about Trump's plans for his |
| 1:12.5 | presidential library and why some historians worry that it could misrepresent this moment in history |
| 1:18.1 | by telling the story only through Trump's eyes. |
| 1:30.3 | Michael, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having. |
| 1:31.3 | So Michael, you reported over the weekend on President Trump's plans for his presidential |
| 1:35.7 | library in Miami. And I want to get into all the ways that Trump wants to memorialize his presidency. |
| 1:41.6 | But first, like, what has historically been the point |
| 1:45.8 | of a presidential library? How have past presidents used them? Well, I think I started with FDR. He had |
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