📚 Trump's War on Knowledge: The Library of Congress Under Siege as President Attempts Takeover
How the president's unprecedented power grab threatens the very foundation of democratic research and intellectual freedom
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
The president is trying to take control of the Library of Congress 📚, which is supposed to belong to Congress 🏛️, not the president 👔. At the same time, schools 🏫 and libraries 📚 across the country are removing thousands of books 📚❌, especially ones written by people of color ✊🏽 or about LGBTQ+ people 🏳️🌈. This is similar to what happened in other countries 🌍 when dictators 🦠 wanted to control what people could read and learn 📚🔒. But many people are fighting back ✊ to protect libraries 📚💪 and make sure everyone can access books that tell different kinds of stories 📖📚, because having access to lots of different books and ideas 💡 is important for democracy to work 🗳️⚖️.
🗝️ Takeaways
📖 Trump fired the Librarian of Congress and attempted to seize control of the legislative branch's research arm
🔥 Nearly 16,000 book bans have occurred since 2021—the highest since the McCarthy era
🎯 Banned books predominantly target stories by people of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and works about racism
📚 Military academies are now removing philosophy books and works by authors of color from their libraries
🚫 The Department of Education is gaslighting Americans by denying book bans are happening
⚖️ Project 2025 calls for criminalizing librarians who provide access to diverse literature
💪 Publishers, libraries, and communities are fighting back through lawsuits and grassroots resistance
Trump's War on Knowledge: The Library of Congress and the New Book Burning Era
By Three Sonorans
From the Borderlands of Southern Arizona
The echoes of history are deafening. As I write this from the desert Southwest, where the wind carries stories of resistance across la frontera, I'm reminded that the fight for knowledge and truth has always been a cornerstone of authoritarian control. Today, that fight has reached the very heart of American democracy: the Library of Congress itself.
What we're witnessing under Trump's administration isn't just political theater—it's a systematic assault on the institutions that preserve knowledge, protect intellectual freedom, and serve as the research backbone of our democracy.
Es una guerra contra la verdad, and it's happening right now, with consequences that will reverberate for generations.
The Unprecedented Attack on the Library of Congress
In May 2025, Trump made an unprecedented move that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. According to reporting from The Washington Post, he abruptly fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first African American and the first woman to hold this position, before her 10-year term expired, and attempted to install Todd Blanche, a top Justice Department official and Trump's former personal lawyer, as acting Librarian.
This wasn't just a personnel change—it was an attempt to seize control of an institution that has been part of the legislative branch since its founding.
The administration's legal team now contends that the Library of Congress is not under Congress's exclusive jurisdiction, challenging a foundational principle of the separation of powers that has stood for over two centuries. Think about that for a moment: Trump is literally claiming ownership of the Library of Congress—an institution whose very name declares its allegiance to the legislative branch.
But Hayden's firing was just the beginning.
Trump also removed Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights, and sought to appoint loyalists to key positions throughout the Library. According to Rolling Stone, these moves have been met with resistance from Library staff who refused to recognize Blanche's authority, and from lawmakers, including senior Republicans, who argue that the Library is a legislative branch agency and outside the president's appointment power.
Why the Library Matters: More Than Books
To understand the gravity of this situation, we need to grasp what the Library of Congress actually does. This isn't just about dusty books on shelves, though the symbolism of controlling books is chilling enough in itself.
The Library of Congress serves as the research arm of Congress, housing confidential legal advice, sensitive investigations into lawmakers, and vast copyright records.
Control over the Library would grant the executive branch access to sensitive information, including private research requests from lawmakers. Imagine a president having access to every confidential research request made by members of Congress, every sensitive investigation, and every piece of legal advice sought by legislators as they try to do their jobs. It's a level of surveillance and political leverage that would make any caudillo proud.
The broader implications are staggering. The Library houses:
Congressional Research Service reports that inform legislation
Copyright registrations that protect intellectual property
Historical documents that shape our understanding of American democracy
Research materials used by lawmakers to craft policy
By seizing control of this institution, Trump isn't just grabbing power—he's positioning himself to monitor, influence, and potentially suppress the very research that underpins democratic governance.
The Broader War on Books and Knowledge
This assault on the Library of Congress doesn't exist in isolation.
It's part of a comprehensive attack on libraries, books, and intellectual freedom that spans from elementary schools to military academies. According to PEN America, there have been nearly 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021—a number not seen since the Red Scare McCarthy era of the 1950s.
The Targeted Books Tell the Story
The pattern of which books are being banned reveals the true agenda.
According to PEN America's data, the censorship predominantly targets books about race and racism by authors of color, books on LGBTQ+ topics, and books that discuss sexual violence or have sexual references for older readers.
Among the most banned books in the 2023-2024 school year were classics such as Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.
In January 2025, Trump issued executive orders that extended book banning from K-12 schools to military institutions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed the U.S. Naval Academy that Trump's book ban order also applied to its library.
The result? According to Daily Nous, books by philosophers, including Linda Alcoff, Charles Mills, and George Yancy, were removed from the library of the Naval Academy. Even a novel by Etaf Rum titled Evil Eye made the banned list.
The Department of Education's Gaslighting
Perhaps most insidiously, the Trump Department of Education has begun denying that book bans are even occurring. In a January 2025 press release titled "U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden's Book Ban Hoax," the agency dismissed 11 complaints related to so-called "book bans." It eliminated the position of "book ban coordinator."
According to The 19th, the Department claimed that books aren't being "banned," but that school districts have established "commonsense processes by which to evaluate and remove age-inappropriate materials”. This is classic authoritarian doublespeak—denying the reality that thousands of educators, librarians, and students are experiencing daily.
Project 2025: The Blueprint for Cultural Control
The book banning campaign isn't random—it's part of a systematic plan outlined in Project 2025, the 900-page conservative blueprint for authoritarian governance. According to the Mississippi Free Press, Project 2025 proposes expanding book-banning efforts in schools, making it a federal priority and criminalizing librarians who allow students to choose banned books.
The plan explicitly calls for:
Federal censorship of LGBTQ+ topics in schools
Elimination of lessons on critical race theory
Restriction of discussions about historical events
Criminal penalties for librarians and educators
As reported by Lithub, Project 2025 removes publishers, teachers, and librarians—the subject matter experts in child literacy—from the equation, "not only denigrating them as pedophiles and groomers but also calling for their imprisonment and registry as sex offenders.”
The Historical Echo: Cuando queman libros
Those of us who carry the stories of our ancestors know this pattern. Cuando queman libros, después queman gente—when they burn books, they later burn people.
We've seen this playbook before, and not just in Nazi Germany. From Spain under Franco to Chile under Pinochet, from Argentina's Dirty War to the book burnings in Central America, authoritarians always start by controlling knowledge and silencing diverse voices.
The targeting is deliberate and strategic:
Books by Indigenous authors and authors of color
LGBTQ+ stories and authors
Histories that center marginalized experiences
Works that examine systems of oppression
This isn't about protecting children—it's about protecting white supremacy from the truth.
It's about ensuring that young people never see themselves reflected in literature if they're queer, Brown, Black, Indigenous, or otherwise marginalized. It's about maintaining a sanitized version of American history that erases genocide, slavery, and systemic oppression.
The DEI Connection: Erasing Institutional Memory
Trump's simultaneous attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs reveals the broader strategy. His January 2025 executive orders didn't just end DEI programs—they required federal agencies to compile lists of contractors and grantees who had provided DEI training or supported DEI programs since 2021.
According to Harvard Law School's Corporate Governance Blog, agencies were directed to "terminate any DEIA-related contractors" and submit plans for laying off employees who work in DEIA offices. This isn't just about ending programs—it's about creating blacklists and purging institutional memory of efforts toward equity and inclusion.
The ACLU notes that these orders "seek to intimidate all employers, ranging from private organizations and federal contractors and grantees to state and local entities, into abandoning DEIA initiatives.”
It's a chilling effect designed to make organizations self-censor out of fear.
The Impact on Communities Like Ours
Here in the borderlands, we understand what it means to have our stories erased, our languages suppressed, our histories whitewashed. The current wave of book banning disproportionately affects communities like ours—Chicano, Indigenous, immigrant, queer, and working-class communities whose stories have always been seen as threatening to the dominant narrative.
Consider what's being lost:
Young Chicanos won't find themselves in I Am Joaquín or Bless Me, Ultima
LGBTQ+ youth lose access to books that help them understand they're not alone
Black students are denied their history and heritage through authors like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou
Indigenous youth lose access to stories that center their experiences and wisdom
This isn't abstract—it's personal.
When libraries remove books about immigration, they're telling kids like those in our border communities that their families' experiences don't matter. When they ban books about racism, they're telling students of color that their struggles aren't valid. When they remove LGBTQ+ books, they're telling queer youth that they don't deserve to see themselves reflected in literature.
The Resistance: Libraries as Sanctuary
But here's what gives me hope: the resistance is real and it's growing. According to Nonprofit Quarterly, organizations like Little Free Library are stocking banned books, particularly in areas affected by censorship. Libraries in communities across the country are pushing back, and librarians are risking their jobs to defend intellectual freedom.
The major publishers—the "Big Five" including Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, and Simon & Schuster—have filed joint lawsuits challenging book bans. As reported by Victoria University, Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya called Idaho's book ban bill "blatantly discriminatory, broad and vague.”
Even within institutions under attack, there's resistance. Library staff at the Library of Congress refused to recognize Trump's attempted takeover. Naval Academy faculty and alumni have spoken out against the book removals. Teachers and librarians across the country are finding creative ways to continue providing access to diverse literature.
What This Means for Democracy
The assault on the Library of Congress and the broader book banning campaign represent more than cultural warfare—they're attacks on the foundations of democratic governance. When a president can seize control of Congress's research arm, monitor legislative activities, and restrict access to information, the separation of powers collapses.
When schools can't teach accurate history, when libraries can't provide diverse literature, when young people can't access books that reflect their experiences, democracy withers. An informed citizenry is essential to democratic participation, and that's exactly what's being undermined.
The timing isn't coincidental. As demographics shift and marginalized voices gain prominence, those threatened by change are doubling down on efforts to maintain control. They're using the levers of government to silence opposition, erase inconvenient histories, and maintain systems of oppression.
A Note of Hope and a Call to Action
Pero la lucha sigue—the struggle continues.
Throughout history, attempts to control knowledge and silence voices have ultimately failed. Books survive, stories persist, and truth endures. From the underground libraries of Nazi-occupied Europe to the clandestine schools during apartheid, from the círculos de estudio during Central American repression to the freedom schools of the Civil Rights Movement, people have always found ways to share knowledge and preserve truth.
Today, that resistance takes many forms:
Supporting local libraries and attending board meetings
Buying banned books and sharing them in your community
Volunteering with organizations like Little Free Library
Running for school board positions
Documenting and reporting censorship attempts
Supporting independent bookstores and diverse publishers
How You Can Get Involved
Immediate Actions:
Contact your representatives about the Library of Congress takeover
Attend local library and school board meetings
Support legal challenges to book bans through organizations like the ACLU and PEN America
Donate banned books to Little Free Libraries in your area
Long-term Engagement:
Run for local office, especially school boards and library boards
Support diverse authors by buying their books and attending their events
Volunteer with literacy organizations in your community
Subscribe to independent journalism that covers these issues
Stay Informed: This is precisely why publications like Three Sonorans Substack matter more than ever. In times of increasing censorship and media manipulation, independent voices from the borderlands become increasingly essential for understanding what is really happening and how it affects our communities. By supporting Three Sonorans, you're investing in the kind of journalism that centers marginalized voices and refuses to be silenced.
The stakes couldn't be higher. This isn't just about books—it's about who gets to tell America's story, whose experiences matter, and whether future generations will have access to the full spectrum of human knowledge and experience.
La verdad siempre encuentra un camino—truth always finds a way. Our job is to make sure it has plenty of paths to travel.
What questions do you have about the book banning crisis in your community? How have you seen censorship affecting local libraries and schools where you live?
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
This is not a laughing matter. The MAGAtistas also plan to rewrite history, which brings to mind the famous Orwellian dictum, "Who controls the present controls the past." Needless to say, objectivity and adherence to facts have been flushed down...
Several of my own titles (fiction) have been banned for digital distribution (though mercifully, a couple of retailers will permit me to sell them).
Bottom line: censorship is alive and well in Trump's America. First they ban books; then they burn them. My fear is that they'll burn authors after that...
As it happens I looked up 3 people mentioned in your essay who I had never heard of. Interesting people to ban. It will not be necessary to reciprocate in future against the right’s favourite “thinker” - Curtis Yarvin. He self censors in that his writing verges on illiteracy.