The book burning stage is about to begin with new Librarian of Congress

Illustration: Boston Public Library via Unsplash.

Donald Trump’s now-leaked appointment of Todd Blanche—his personal lawyer with zero credentials in library science or public archives—as Acting Librarian of Congress is not just an insult to intellectual integrity.

It’s a historic disgrace.

It is an authoritarian stunt meant to disembowel the very soul of America’s cultural memory.

If you are not angry, you’re not paying attention.

The Library of Congress is supposed to be a neutral and sacred institution.

It is a repository of published books and other material—including rare historical artifacts—in the United States.

It is the living memory of the nation—holding voices from every race, culture, gender, and political persuasion.

And now, a man who built his career defending a demagogue is being installed—without Senate approval, in direct violation of precedent and constitutional norms—to oversee that memory.

Not preserve it.

Not protect it.

But to manipulate, whitewash, and possibly delete it.

This is not “draining the swamp.” This is flooding it with gasoline.

Let’s not be naïve: We have arrived at the book-burning stage of authoritarianism!

Only this time the fire comes in the form of digital erasure, algorithmic suppression, and AI-powered purging.

If you think this is just me talking out of my ass, look around!

Across the country, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are under coordinated attack.

Military libraries are being stripped of books—as has already happened at West Point and Annapolis.

DEI is being cast as a national security threat.

And now the Library of Congress—our national library—is being handed over to a man who may use AI to classify and obliterate anything the regime finds too “woke,” too queer, too Black, too female, too free.

This is fascism draped in bureaucracy.

Trump has no authority—none—to do this.

The position of Librarian of Congress is a Senate-confirmed role with a 10-year term.

Carla Hayden, a professionally trained and Senate-approved librarian, was illegally forced out to make room for this ideological hitman.

And why? Because she was a Black woman who believed in democracy, diversity, and truth.

This is not normal.

This is not debatable.

This is what happens when regimes try to erase their sins.

Every authoritarian movement in history has eventually come for the books.

They came for the books in Nazi Germany.

They came for the books in Mao’s China.

They came for the books in Pinochet’s Chile.

Now, they’re coming for the books in Trump’s America.

And don’t let the absence of fire fool you—it’s still a book burning!

Every librarian, every teacher, every journalist, every student should be on red alert.

This is how history is rewritten.

This is how memory is controlled.

This is how you silence a generation.

The question isn’t whether this is happening. It is.

The question is: what the hell are we going to do about it?