Last week, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video of his future presidential library. The exterior is a glossy mashup of Trump Tower and One World Trade, with the president’s name emblazoned in massive lettering near the top. It looms over the Miami skyline — the tallest building, by far, in its prospective city. Parked in the lobby are Air Force One and several fighter jets.

Presidential libraries are ideally meant to preserve the documents of our leaders, as a way to understand the past; they conjure an image of shelves lined with notes and correspondences for historians to pick through. This is not Trump’s plan. “I don’t believe in building libraries,” he told reporters. “It’s gonna be, most likely, a hotel.”

Trump’s “library” then has a different defining image: a gold statue of Trump himself, his fist raised in triumph, towering over the stage of an auditorium. This is how he wants to be remembered — not just as a former head of state, but as an idol. “The greatest president our nation has ever known,” declared his son, Eric.

🚨 FIRST LOOK: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library is officially here.Over the past six months, I have poured my heart and soul into this project with my incredible team at @Trump.This landmark on the water in Miami, Florida will stand as a lasting testament to an… pic.twitter.com/azV1hx0HG2— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) March 31, 2026

🚨 FIRST LOOK: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library is officially here.Over the past six months, I have poured my heart and soul into this project with my incredible team at @Trump.This landmark on the water in Miami, Florida will stand as a lasting testament to an… pic.twitter.com/azV1hx0HG2

Every post-presidency library is part of an act of reputation laundering, intended to cast a former leader in the most flattering possible light. But Trump’s penchant for self-worship, and need for revenge, takes this a step further: It embodies the often stupefying ways the president warps our understanding of history.

Another example came to light a few days later. On Sunday, Politico reported that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum had quietly removed materials from its website and changed its programming, seemingly to appease the president. The museum cancelled a one-day education workshop for college students, scheduled for last summer, called “Fragility of Democracy........

© Daily Intelligencer