Donald Trump abruptly fired the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, on Thursday as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the Republican US president and his agenda.
Hayden was notified in an email late on Thursday from the White House’s presidential personnel office, according to an email obtained by the Associated Press. Confirmed by the Senate to the job in 2016, Hayden was the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress.
“Carla,” the email began. “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. Thank you for your service.” A spokesperson for the Library of Congress confirmed that the White House told Hayden she was dismissed.
Hayden, whose 10-year term was set to expire next year, had experienced a political backlash from a conservative advocacy group that had vowed to root out those it deems to be standing in the way of Trump’s rightwing agenda. The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused Hayden and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with “radical” content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.
“The current #LibrarianOfCongress Carla Hayden is woke, anti-Trump, and promotes trans-ing kids,” AAF said on its X account earlier on Thursday, just hours before the firing was made public. “It’s time to get her OUT and hire a new guy for the job!”
Trump has been weeding out officials who he believes do not align with his agenda, from the justice department to the Pentagon and beyond. At times, the firings come after conservative voices single out officials for criticism.
Earlier on Thursday, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) was pushed out one day after he had testified that he did not agree with proposals to dismantle the organization. Trump has suggested that individual states, not Fema, should take the lead on responding to hurricanes, tornadoes and other such crises.
At the Pentagon, more than a half-dozen top general officers have been fired since January, including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen CQ Brown Jr. The only two women serving as four-star officers, as well as a disproportionate number of other senior female officers, have also been fired.
The unexpected move on Thursday against Hayden infuriated congressional Democrats, who initially disclosed the firing.
“Enough is enough,” said the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, of New York, who called Hayden a “trailblazer, a scholar, and a public servant of the highest order”.
The Connecticut congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House appropriations committee, said Hayden was “callously fired” by Trump and demanded an explanation from the administration as to why she was dismissed.
“Hayden, has spent her entire career serving people – from helping kids learn to read to protecting some of our nation’s most precious treasures,” said Congressman Joseph Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House administration committee that oversees the library. “She is an American hero,” he said.
The Library of Congress, across from the US Capitol in Washington DC holds a vast collection of the nation’s books and history, which it makes available to the public and lawmakers. It houses the papers of nearly two dozen presidents and more than three dozen supreme court justices.
It also has collections of rare books, images and troves of music and artefacts – like a flute owned by President James Madison, which the singer Lizzo played in a 2022 performance arranged by Hayden.
The Democratic leaders praised Hayden, who had been the longtime leader of Baltimore’s library system, for a tenure that modernized the library and made it more accessible.
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, of New York applauded Hayden as “an accomplished, principled and distinguished librarian of Congress”.
“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.
“The Library of Congress is the people’s library. There will be accountability for this unprecedented assault on the American way of life sooner rather than later,” he said.
Robert Newlen, the principal deputy librarian, said he would serve as acting librarian of Congress “until further instruction” in a separate email seen by the AP.
Hayden spoke recently of how libraries changed her own life, and opened her to the world. “Libraries are the great equalizer,” she posted on X during National Library Week last month.
“And when you have a free public library in particular,” she said, it was an “opportunity center for people all walks of life, and you are giving them the opportunity to make choices on which information, entertainment and inspiration means the most to them”.
