Most presidents, when they leave office, ultimately have a presidential library. It's a place to document their time in office with personal papers, records, artifacts, and often video footage and other exhibits. Currently, we are watching the presidential library of Barack Obama being built in Chicago. It doesn't seem to be going as planned, and so far, it does not look like it will be the most attractive building ever. While the Obama library is under construction, discussion is now underway about Joe Biden's presidential library. That may not be going as planned either.
The Biden Presidential Library was completed ahead of schedule pic.twitter.com/2f4OSW9Kzv
— Carissa (@njoyzgrl81) January 23, 2025
Presidential libraries cost money, a lot of it. And that is where former President Joe Biden is running into problems. Formerly reliable Democrat donors are, to say the least, less than enthusiastic about donating to the possible future Biden Presidential Library. Major Democrat donor Susie Buell said, “No one has asked, but I am not inclined to give to libraries.” Another unnamed donor said, “I’d like him to have some nice library, I just don’t see that’s where I’m going to spend my money.” Still another unnamed donor was a bit more blunt and to the point, saying, “Me? No way.”
Another dependable Democrat donor is Florida-based personal injury attorney John Morgan. He raised a substantial amount of money for Biden's campaign that ultimately went to former Vice President Kamala Harris. His response to whether he would be contributing to the Biden library was the most colorful. He stated, “I want an $800,000 refund. I don’t believe a library will ever be built unless it’s a bookmobile from the old days." Many of Biden's most staunch donors, like Morgan, said they have no ill feelings toward Biden, but that they were not interested in donating to his library, or would only give a token amount.
The reason why donors are not eager to invest in a Biden library varies from the goofy to personal interactions, or the lack of them with Joe Biden. In the goofy column, Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraising chair Chris Korge stated, “This is a very difficult time to raise large checks for Democrats because of how vindictive Donald Trump is.” Others felt that spending money on future candidates and campaigns would be their best investments. But others cite personal reasons for not wanting to donate. Personal interactions with Biden's inner circle were described as "distasteful." There were also complaints of a lack of access to Biden, saying they were asked time and again to write checks, but never got a return phone call. That inner circle has been blamed for isolating Biden, and donors, like everyone else, learned later of his mental decline.
What exactly is going to be in the Joe Biden Presidential Library?? pic.twitter.com/7bdkeMDECG
— Yankees Girl 1776 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸 (@LizLemon5759) September 8, 2025
Korge stated that he had urged Biden and his people to concentrate on fundraising for a library, instead of running for a second term multiple times.
“I did tell them that if Biden didn’t run [in 2024] he would go out as a hero, and he could focus the last two years of his term on setting himself up to raise a lot of money for the library."
Perhaps these once-reliable donors are being hit with a harsh reality. That reality is that the Democrat Party is about as popular as gas station sushi. A Real Clear Politics poll shows Democrats with an unfavorability rating of 60.5 percent, an almost three-decade low. After the 2024 drubbing they received at the hands of Republicans, not only have they not done any introspection, but have doubled and tripled down on policies that voters soundly rejected in 2024. A YouGov poll taken just a day after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a Utah university campus event showed that 11 percent of Democrats said it is "always" or "usually" acceptable to celebrate the death of someone you disagree with, compared to six percent of Republicans. A day later.
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My colleague Becca Lower recently reported that the board of Joe's library is blaming...wait for it...Donald Trump, for the reason that donors will not pony up the cash. Because of course it's his fault.
Will Joe Biden get his library? One donor described the possible hurdles this way: “I don’t think ‘hill’ is the proper term. It’s going to be much steeper than that.”
Least shocking news ever: Team Joe is having trouble raising money for construction of Biden's presidential library because he was such a lousy president that he set his party back decades. https://t.co/tsa1PTCbAb pic.twitter.com/Kas3hd9IPS
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) September 6, 2025
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