By Michael P. Riccards

On July 1, 2026 President Donald Trump officially opened the Theodore Roosevelt Library in North Dakota. 

Trump is everything TR would have detested. Like Trump, Roosevelt was born to money, but unlike Trump, TR used his early years to get a fine education and then turned immediately to public service. Trump was a corrupt businessman from the time he inherited money, and established a record for mis-dealings and illegal actions. 

Roosevelt had an almost Victorian attitude toward the dignity of women. Trump has been found guilty in a major civil suit of sexual misbehavior and was for years a close friend of America’s greatest pimp and pedaphile. Teddy loved children, was a child at heart. Trump has pretty much  ignored his children, even calling his heir apparent not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Roosevelt was a genune war hero and became immortalized in the modest but significant battle up San Juan Hill. When the Spanish American War was over, his Rough Riders greeted him with reverence at Sagamore Hill. Trump avoided the draft and has minimized the idea of giving one’s life for the nation. 

was genuinely moved by the sight of the poor in the lower east side of Manhattan. Trump has used his office to aggrandize  himself to a level of incredible billions of dollars.

TR was actually a very good historian, and his history of the naval war of 1812 is still a standard reference. Trump barely reads anything that is beyond the New York Post social section. Roosevelt believed in dedication, patriotism and sacrifice. Trump believes in himself and creates a world of illusion around his corrupt, self-serving persona.

Trump wants to be on Mount Rushmore. Roosevelt is there in stone.

TR turned the Republican party into an instrument of progressive reform. Trump has turned the Grand Old Party into a tool of racism, anti intellectualism, and a home for bigots, crooks, and grifters. 

TR believed that one should praise the man in the arena, the fighter for social justice. Trump believes the nation needs more men to make untold fortunes with no dedication to justice or equality. 

TR believed in appointing forgotten minorities to office. Trump has waged war against inclusion in a multi ethnic republic.

So, when Trump dedicated the Roosevelt library, it was a sad joke, just before he opened up the ceremonies for our 250th anniversary. History can be cruel and sometimes it can be farcical. Sometimes it is both.

Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, is the author of 30 books, including a two-volume history of the presidency, The Ferocious Engine of Democracy, and a play about Abraham Lincoln. The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Jandoli Institute or St. Bonaventure University.

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Michael Riccards, Politics