July 1, 2026, updated:
MEDORA, N.D. (AP) — President Donald Trump visited North Dakota on Wednesday (July 1, 2026) to see the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the life of America’s 26th president, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where Roosevelt built his conservation values in the 1880s.
During a tour of the 96,000-square-foot library and in a speech afterward, Trump spoke admiringly of Roosevelt and compared himself favorably to the former president, who he described as the embodiment of the American spirit, praising his toughness as a leader and outdoorsman.
“He had a freakin’ wild life,” Trump told an audience at a Western-themed amphitheater. “He didn’t want to be quiet. He wanted to be great.”
The official opening of the library on Saturday coincides with July 4th celebrations honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump made the trip to see the $450 million project aboard his new Air Force One, a Boeing 747 given to the United States by Qatar. The visit was a boost for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a former governor of North Dakota, while also bringing the nation’s birthday festivities to a region synonymous with its westward expansion.
In his speech after the tour, Trump weaved between his own administration’s work while returning to lessons drawn from Roosevelt’s life, recounting stories of bravery during Roosevelt’s time in the West and as president.
“He was something special,” Trump said. “He was a really great man. He was a man the likes of which you may never see again.”
During the visit, Trump announced that his administration was giving $750,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the library’s first year.
Roosevelt was a New York native with a strong North Dakota connection
Roosevelt visited Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison. On Valentine’s Day the next year, his mother and wife died hours apart in the same house in New York.
Devastated, Roosevelt came to Dakota where he ranched cattle and hunted big game in the West during visits mostly from 1884 to 1887.
He underwent deep personal growth from his experiences, including chasing boat thieves down a river, standing up to a bully in a bar and working alongside cowboys who ridiculed him for wearing eyeglasses.
Roosevelt, who served as president from 1901 to 1909, later said he never would have been president were it not for his experiences in North Dakota.
Near the library is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Visitors can hike trails and drive a scenic route through the colorful, rugged Badlands where bison and wild horses roam.
Trump has often described an affinity with Roosevelt
Trump began his second term last year by trumpeting the construction of the Panama Canal during the Roosevelt administration.
Trump even said the U.S. might seek to take back the waterway from Panama to curb influence from China. That goal has been overshadowed by his suggestions that Washington might seize control of Greenland or that Canada could become America’s 51st state.
Given a chance to talk with an artificial-intelligence version of Roosevelt at the library, Trump asked if the 26th president considered the Panama Canal his greatest achievement. A digital Roosevelt said he took pride in it while also listing achievements involving parks, medicine and his Square Deal.
In the run-up to staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn for his 80th birthday, Trump said he was aware of Roosevelt holding far lower-key boxing matches in the White House. Trump made no mention of Roosevelt having detached the retina of his left eye during one such sparring session.
The trip also underscores the president’s esteem for Burgum, who has become a key face of and cheerleader for the president’s expansive renovation projects around Washington.
In 2019, Burgum championed the library to North Dakota’s Republican-led legislature when he was governor, touting its tourism potential. The legislature approved a $50 million operations endowment, requiring library planners to raise $100 million in private donations, a goal met in 2020. Donations total about $354 million as of early 2026.
Donors include oil executive Harold Hamm, the Waltons of Walmart fame, Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund, and Burgum himself.
The library will showcase Roosevelt’s ideas and artifacts
Trump was the library’s first official visitor, according to the library’s executive director, Robbie Lauf.
All living presidents were invited to the grand opening of the library, which joins more than a dozen others across the country that examine the lives and legacies of U.S. presidents, from Ronald Reagan in California to Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York and Herbert Hoover in Iowa. The Obama Presidential Center recently opened in Chicago, bringing together four former presidents for the occasion.
Visitors will learn about Roosevelt’s conservation ideas and his Rough Riders regiment of the Spanish-American War, but also his “horrific comments” about Native Americans and other issues “that have obviously aged poorly,” Lauf said.
Artifacts, many of them out of public view for decades, will tell Roosevelt’s story. Visitors will see his Rough Riders uniform; the 1884 diary grieving his terrible loss; and the eyeglasses case, speech and shirt from the 1912 assassination attempt against him.
Organizers hope the library draws families and thousands of school children from the region, as well as some of the millions of motorists who travel to Yellowstone National Park and the Black Hills.
“It’s a feature, not a bug, that we are in a county of 1,000 people and a town of 120,” Lauf said. “TR came here for that purpose.”
The Dakota Resource Council on Tuesday hosted several conservation leaders who criticized Burgum and Trump for policies they say contradict Roosevelt’s conservation principles, such as cutting staff and budgets and prioritizing energy development on public lands.
Last year, Burgum signed an order prioritizing the openness and accessibility of parks to the public amid the workforce cuts. He has compared America’s public lands and natural resources to “assets” that should be responsibly developed to exert “energy dominance.”
On Friday, Trump plans to visit South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore for Independence Day fireworks, as he did in 2020.
July 1, 2026:
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — President Donald Trump will visit North Dakota on Wednesday (July 1, 2026) to see the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the 26th president’s life, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where the young easterner built his conservation values while ranching and hunting in the 1880s.
The 96,000-square-foot library opens over the weekend on July 4, the pinnacle date of celebrations this year honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But Trump is coming early to see the $450 million project, a push of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum from when he was governor of North Dakota, and bringing the official celebrations of the nation’s birth to a region synonymous with its westward expansion.
All living presidents were invited to the grand opening of the library, which joins more than a dozen such libraries throughout the country examining the lives and legacies of U.S. presidents from Ronald Reagan in California, to Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York to Herbert Hoover in Iowa. The Obama Presidential Center recently opened in Chicago, bringing together four former presidents for the occasion.
Trump will be the library’s first official visitor, Library Executive Director Robbie Lauf said, and will speak at a nearby Western-themed amphitheater at an event run by Freedom 250, the Trump-created group billed as nonpartisan that he has tapped to organize the festivities he will participate in this week. On Friday, Trump also plans to visit South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore for Independence Day fireworks, as he did in 2020.
The president has often praised, and even compared himself favorably, to Roosevelt, declaring in 2020 that he was, “The number one environmental president since Teddy Roosevelt.”
Trump began his second term by trumpeting construction of the Panama Canal during the Roosevelt administration. He even suggested that the U.S. might seek to take back the waterway from Panama to curb influence from China — though that’s a goal that was overshadowed by his suggestions that Washington might seize control of Greenland or that Canada could become America’s 51st state.
In the run-up to staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn for his 80th birthday, Trump said he was aware of Roosevelt holding far lower-key boxing matches in the White House — though he made no mention of Roosevelt having detached the retina of his left eye during one such sparring session.
The trip also underscores the president’s esteem for Burgum, who has become a key face of and cheerleader for the president’s expansive renovation projects around Washington.
Roosevelt was a New York native with a strong connection to North Dakota
Roosevelt visited Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison. On Valentine’s Day the next year, his mother and wife died hours apart in the same house.
Devastated, the New York native came to Dakota where he ranched cattle and hunted big game in the West during visits mostly from 1884 to 1887.
He underwent deep personal growth from his experiences, including chasing boat thieves down a river, standing up to a bully in a bar and working alongside cowboys who ridiculed him for wearing eyeglasses.
Roosevelt, who served from 1901 to 1909, later said he never would have been president were it not for his experiences in North Dakota.
Near the library is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Visitors can hike trails and drive a scenic route through the colorful, rugged Badlands where bison and wild horses roam.
In 2019, Burgum championed the library to North Dakota’s Republican-led legislature when he was governor, touting its tourism potential. The legislature approved a $50 million operations endowment, requiring library planners to raise $100 million in private donations, a goal met in 2020. Donations total about $354 million as of early 2026.
Donors include oil executive Harold Hamm, the Waltons of Walmart fame, Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin and Burgum himself.
Burgum also has lobbied for Roosevelt’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, saying during an event previewing the Roosevelt library, “Keep your fingers crossed.”
That’s a nod to Roosevelt — who had become alarmed at the number of injuries and deaths of college football players — convening a 1905 White House meeting featuring the presidents of Harvard, Yale and Princeton to urge safety improvements in the sport. The discussions eventually helped sparked the founding of the NCAA, college’s sports governing body.
The library will showcase Roosevelt’s ideas and artifacts
Visitors will learn about Roosevelt’s conservation ideas and his Rough Riders regiment of the Spanish-American War, but also his “horrific comments” about Native Americans and other issues “that have obviously aged poorly,” Lauf said.
Artifacts, many of them out of public view for decades, will tell Roosevelt’s story. Visitors will see his Rough Riders uniform; the 1884 diary grieving his terrible loss; and the eyeglasses case, speech and shirt from the 1912 assassination attempt against him.
Organizers hope the library draws families and thousands of school children from the region, as well as some of the millions of motorists who travel to Yellowstone National Park and the Black Hills.
“It’s a feature, not a bug, that we are in a county of 1,000 people and a town of 120,” Lauf said. “TR came here for that purpose.”
The Dakota Resource Council on Tuesday hosted several conservation leaders who criticized Burgum and Trump for policies they say contradict Roosevelt’s conservation principles, such as cutting staff and budgets and prioritizing energy development on public lands.
Last year Burgum signed an order prioritizing the openness and accessibility of parks to the public amid the workforce cuts. He has compared America’s public lands and natural resources to “assets” that should be responsibly developed to exert “energy dominance.”
June 28, 2026:
The National Park Service is partnering with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library to loan artifacts and interpretive materials from national park collections as the new library honoring America’s 26th president prepares to open on July 4, 2026, during the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
“Theodore Roosevelt’s leadership launched the American conservation movement and the National Park System we know today,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “By sharing these historic artifacts and stories, we are helping connect new generations to Roosevelt’s legacy during America’s 250th anniversary celebration.”
The loaned materials help connect visitors to Theodore Roosevelt’s remarkable journey—from his childhood in New York City, to his transformative years in the Badlands of North Dakota, to his leadership as president and champion of conservation. The cutting-edge library will sit at the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the only one of America’s 63 flagship National Parks named after a person. The loan inventory contains more than 50 significant artifacts, including:
- Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Rider uniform on loan from Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, NY. This uniform was worn by Theodore Roosevelt during his service with the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the Rough Riders, during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
- Theodore Roosevelt’s Eyeglass Case and Campaign Speech on loan from Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site in New York, NY. This eyeglass case and folded campaign speech were carried by Theodore Roosevelt during the assassination attempt in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912. The bullet passed through both objects before striking Roosevelt, helping to slow its impact and contributing to his survival.
- Theodore Roosevelt’s compass on loan from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND. For Theodore Roosevelt, a compass was more than an instrument of navigation. It represented his engagement with the natural world and his willingness to confront it directly, whether on the Dakota plains, in remote hunting grounds, or later on scientific expeditions abroad.
“We are honored to partner with the National Park Service to help tell Theodore Roosevelt’s story through authentic artifacts and shared educational experiences,” said Edward O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. “This collaboration brings together the places that shaped Roosevelt’s life and legacy while inspiring visitors to embrace leadership, conservation and civic engagement in their own communities.”
To celebrate the library’s opening, these sites will host a series of special interpretive programs, ranger-led talks, family activities, and Junior Ranger opportunities throughout the summer of 2026. Programs will include:
- Special ranger programs exploring Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy and connection to the American West.
- Junior Ranger activities encouraging children and families to discover Roosevelt’s values of stewardship, service and exploration.
- Living history demonstrations and educational exhibits highlighting Roosevelt’s life from childhood through his presidency.
- Collaborative programming with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library during opening events in Medora.
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is a privately funded project at the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Its opening is a signature Freedom 250 event, commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence. Through partnerships, educational programming, and historic preservation, the NPS is helping Americans connect with the people, places and ideals that continue to shape our nation.
For more information about NPS programs and events, visit nps.gov.
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