Senate rejects Trump's Library of Congress takeover

Former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, recently fired by Trump

(Image credit: Shannon Finney / Getty Images)

What happened

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) Tuesday joined Democrats in pushing back against President Donald Trump's effort to install his own leadership team at the Library of Congress, which is part of the legislative branch. Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden last week and Shira Perlmutter, head of the U.S. Copyright Office, over the weekend. But the Justice Department officials he named as their replacements have been rebuffed at the Library of Congress, with congressional support.

Who said what

Congress' quiet resistance to the president's "attempt to exert control" over "the legislative branch's premier research body" is a "rare bipartisan effort to defend its institutional authority" from Trump, The Washington Post said. On Monday, Trump named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a close ally and his former personal lawyer, as acting librarian of Congress, but lawmakers said Hayden's deputy, Robert Newlen, was still in charge for now.

Library of Congress employees on Monday turned away two Trump appointees seeking to take over the Copyright Office. "For the time being, the acting librarian is the acting librarian," Sen. Alex Padilla (Calif.), the top Rules Committee Democrat, said Tuesday, and Trump's people "seem to be respecting that."

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Thune told reporters that Trump administration officials met with the Senate Rules Committee and "we made it clear that there needs to be a consultation around this" and congressional "equities" must be respected and protected. "It's the Library of Congress, not the library of the executive branch," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

What next?

The implications of Trump "installing a close ally as librarian of Congress could be far-reaching," above and beyond separation-of-powers concerns, The Associated Press said. The librarian, for example, could see and pass on confidential "requests made by lawmakers to the Congressional Research Service" for analysis on legislation. And some conservatives were as worried as Democrats that Elon Musk's DOGE team would siphon up the library's vast trove of copyrighted works to train AI, a move Perlmutter warned would be illicit in a report released days before Trump fired her.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.