President Trump unceremoniously fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden after she was branded “woke” and “anti-Trump” by a conservative activist group.
Hayden, the first woman and first Black person to lead the world’s biggest library, was told in a curt email Thursday that she would be relieved of her duties.
“Carla, on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email—from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office—read, according to Politico.
No reason was given for the firing. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Hayden’s ouster follows pressure from the advocacy group American Accountability Foundation. The group accused Hayden, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, of pushing “radical” literature towards children.
“The current #LibrarianOfCongress Carla Hayden is woke, anti-Trump, and promotes trans-ing kids,” the group posted on X hours before Hayden’s firing was announced publicly. “It’s time to get her OUT and hire a new guy for the job!”
The news comes as President Trump culls government officials who are perceived to be against his MAGA agenda.
Cameron Hamilton, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was also removed on Thursday after he expressed opposition to Trump’s proposed cuts to the agency.
The Associated Press reported that over a half-dozen top general officers at the Pentagon have also been purged since January. Trump has additionally presided over the “anti-woke” transformation of the Kennedy Center, which included axing bipartisan members from the arts center’s board and installing friendly faces like Fox News’s Laura Ingraham.
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have raged against Hayden’s ouster.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “the latest foray in [Trump’s] relentless campaign to dismantle the guardrails of our democracy and punish public servants who don’t bend to his every will.”
“Enough is enough,” he added, calling Hayden “a trailblazer, a scholar, and a public servant of the highest order.”
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the leading Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Hayden was “callously fired” and demanded an explanation for the decision.
Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, meanwhile, called Hayden an “American hero.”
“Hayden has spent her entire career serving people—from helping kids learn to read to protecting some of our nation’s most precious treasures,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Hayden is “an accomplished, principled and distinguished Librarian of Congress.”
“Donald Trump’s unjust decision to fire Dr. Hayden in an email sent by a random political hack is a disgrace and the latest in his ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history and turn back the clock,” he said.
“The Library of Congress is the People’s Library,” Jeffries added. “There will be accountability for this unprecedented assault on the American way of life sooner rather than later.”
