“GOP, Biden’s donors mock his presidential library plans amid funding crisis: ‘Might have to open it with a food truck’”

Accord­ing to Demo­c­ra­t­ic insid­ers, many long­time donors have no inten­tion of sup­port­ing Joe Biden’s pres­i­den­tial library

WASHINGTON, DC: Joe Biden is fac­ing mount­ing dif­fi­cul­ties in rais­ing funds for his pres­i­den­tial library, and insid­ers say it could end up sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er than those of his pre­de­ces­sors

The rea­son? Many poten­tial donors are report­ed­ly still furi­ous over his deci­sion to seek a sec­ond term in his 80s, a move they believe paved the way for Kamala Har­ris’ defeat to Don­ald Trump.

The US Pres­i­den­tial Library tra­di­tion began in 1939 with Franklin D Roo­sevelt. Since then, pres­i­dents have fol­lowed, with costs ris­ing, from $43 mil­lion for George HW Bush’s library in 1997, to $165 mil­lion for Bill Clinton’s, $500 mil­lion for George W Bush’s, and $1.6 bil­lion for Barack Obama’s upcom­ing Chica­go library.

What insid­ers are say­ing about tur­moil sur­round­ing Biden’s pres­i­den­tial library

Accord­ing to Demo­c­ra­t­ic insid­ers, much of the respect Joe Biden earned over his decades of pub­lic ser­vice has been lost, and many long­time donors have no inten­tion of sup­port­ing his pres­i­den­tial library.

Instead of back­ing the project, donors are now redi­rect­ing their resources toward Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates run­ning in the 2026 midterm elec­tions.

“The lev­el of dis­may amongst many of us Democ­rats is still very strong, and I don’t see abat­ing any­time soon,” a for­mer White House offi­cial

The source crit­i­cized Biden’s deci­sion to run for a sec­ond term in his 80s, call­ing it self­ish and dri­ven by the appeal of hold­ing pow­er.

“He was self­ish, he decid­ed that the pres­i­den­cy was intox­i­cat­ing, a com­fort­able spot for him, and he did­n’t sur­round him­self with advis­ers who were will­ing to speak truth to pow­er. They did the coun­try a dis­ser­vice, but ulti­mate­ly, the buck stops with him, and he bears the respon­si­bil­i­ty for what was a very reck­less deci­sion,” they added. 

Biden’s plans regard­ing pres­i­den­tial library 

Joe Biden, now 82, recent­ly announced plans to build his library in Delaware, the state where he grew up and served as sen­a­tor for 36 years. How­ev­er, the exact site has yet to be revealed.

The planned library aims to be an “immer­sive” muse­um, high­light­ing Biden’s lead­er­ship dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, his infra­struc­ture ini­tia­tives, and his for­eign pol­i­cy achieve­ments. The board over­see­ing the project includes key Biden allies, such as for­mer Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken and for­mer White House advi­sor Steve Ric­chet­ti.

The Demo­c­rat had ear­li­er float­ed the idea of hous­ing the library at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, locat­ed in his birth state. “Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, which has the Biden School of For­eign Pol­i­cy, wants me to do it up there,” he said in Jan­u­ary.

How­ev­er, the uni­ver­si­ty lat­er clar­i­fied that there had been no dis­cus­sions about host­ing the project.

Democ­rats skep­ti­cal Biden’s pres­i­den­tial library will be built

Sources close to Joe Biden’s team revealed that they aim to raise sev­er­al hun­dred mil­lion dol­lars for his pres­i­den­tial library. How­ev­er, many observers remain doubt­ful that the cam­paign will reach its tar­get.

John Mor­gan, a promi­nent Flori­da attor­ney and long­time Demo­c­ra­t­ic donor who con­tributed $1 mil­lion to Biden’s cam­paign, dis­missed the idea with sar­casm dur­ing an inter­view with NBC.

He said, “I don’t believe a library will ever be built unless it’s a book­mo­bile from the old days. It is my opin­ion no sig­nif­i­cant build­ing will be built.”

Repub­li­cans have seized the oppor­tu­ni­ty to mock Biden’s efforts. Sean Spicer, who served as press sec­re­tary dur­ing Trump’s first term, quipped, “I actu­al­ly feel bad, and I’m being seri­ous, he’s going to get like a food truck for a pres­i­den­tial library if he’s not care­ful.”

Democ­rats crit­i­cize Biden for not prepar­ing fundrais­ing while in office

Some Democ­rats have also crit­i­cized Joe Biden for fail­ing to lay the ground­work for fundrais­ing while in office. They point to past pres­i­dents who act­ed more deci­sive­ly, Barack Oba­ma secured a site for his library before leav­ing the White House, and George HW Bush announced his library’s loca­tion at Texas A&M more than a year before his pres­i­den­cy end­ed

A for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic offi­cial remarked, “I think there’s a sense he’s not as rel­e­vant to the debates that we’re hav­ing right now. I do not expect that donors or orga­ni­za­tions are going to seek him out in large num­bers.”

Adding to the chal­lenge, some poten­tial donors, both indi­vid­u­als and cor­po­ra­tions, fear becom­ing tar­gets of Trump’s social media attacks if they con­tribute to Biden’s project.

Despite the skep­ti­cism, Rufus Gif­ford, a Demo­c­ra­t­ic fundrais­er and board mem­ber for the library, remains opti­mistic.