Overview
- The ribbon-cutting took place on Wednesday, July 1, making President Trump the library’s first presidential guest and starting donor previews ahead of a public opening scheduled for July 4.
- Inside the 96,000-square-foot, roughly $450 million library is a “Talk with TR” exhibit that went viral after Trump spoke with an AI avatar of Theodore Roosevelt.
- The AI exhibit was developed with Microsoft and LemonSlice, trained on Roosevelt’s writings, and uses a professional actor’s voice to generate on-site conversational responses.
- Trump announced $750,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the library has received a $5 million Interior Department grant, and the president loaned Roosevelt’s Medal of Honor to the private foundation.
- Conservation groups criticized Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the administration for policy choices they say clash with Roosevelt’s conservation record, a tension that could shape how the library’s story is received and used politically.