Trump brings Roosevelt’s Medal of Honor as a gift during library’s dedication

MEDORA – President Donald Trump presented a new artifact for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library during its dedication ceremony Wednesday — the Medal of Honor awarded  to Roosevelt. 

The medal had been displayed in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. 

“I thought this would be a … really appropriate place to have it,” Trump said after being introduced by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota. 

Trump and Burgum cut the ribbon in a dedication ceremony for the library honoring Roosevelt, who credited his time in North Dakota for helping him become president. 

“What a magnificent library you built,” Trump said. “It’s a great tribute.”

Trump called the library a “living monument to a legend, statesman, soldier, frontiersman, and a true American hero.” He was effusive in his praise for Roosevelt and what he represents. 

“We come to the heartland of America to pay tribute to a man who embodied the heart and soul and fight and spirit of our country, as much as anyone who ever lived,” Trump said. “He was really quite something.”

Trump follows Roosevelt’s rails with ceremonial train trip to Medora

The 47th president extolled Roosevelt’s achievements as president, such as constructing the Panama Canal and building the U.S. Navy into a global force, and the impact his tenure in the White House had on American prestige. 

Trump said Roosevelt had “transformed his country by the reach of his vision” and “by the force of his will” by the time the Rough Rider colonel died at the age of 60 in 1919. 

The United States had become “one of the greatest places, one of the greatest empires, one of the most incredible countries, ready to take its rightful place as the strongest and most respected nation anywhere in the world,” Trump said. 

The most enduring legacy of Roosevelt may be the principles behind his drive and determination. 

“He never stopped, never quit, never surrendered,” Trump said. “Again and again, he summoned the will to transcend tragedy and triumph and defeat heartbreak with hard work.”

Trump said some of those principles remain essential for Americans to aspire to for the country to survive and prosper. 

“Theodore Roosevelt reminds us all that to be a great nation, and to be a free nation, we must have courage. Without courage, you have nothing,” Trump said. “As TR once put it, freedom is not a gift that lasts long in the hands of cowards.”

The president also recommitted himself and the United States to that of another legacy, the Declaration of Independence that was signed 250 years ago this Saturday. 

“A government that was honest and accountable was the number one demand of the Declaration of Independence. They want honesty, they want respect, and on this anniversary we recommit ourselves to upholding that righteous legacy,” Trump said. 

Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who led off the slate of speakers in Medora Wednesday afternoon, urged every American to consider what they can do for their country moving forward. 

“As we celebrate these last 250 years of American greatness, we recognize that it is incumbent on each and every one of us to do our part to ensure that the next 250 years are better than the last,” Armstrong said.

Trump landed in North Dakota just after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, taking the first flight on the new Air Force One. Bismarck residents gathered near the airport Wednesday morning to take photos of Air Force One’s arrival.

Accompanying Trump on Air Force One were Interior Secretary and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and his wife, Kathryn, Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina, Eric Trump, and Rep. Julie Fedorchak, according to a White House pool report. Fedorchak’s office said she’s the first member of Congress to travel on the new plane, donated by the government of Qatar. 

He then traveled by the Marine One helicopter to the western North Dakota, and took a ceremonial Freedom250 train into the tourist town of Medora, where he took a private tour of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library ahead of its grand opening on Saturday. Horseback riders portraying Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders waited to escort Trump’s motorcade.

Trump spoke to a packed crowd at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre, an event that’s part of the Freedom 250 celebration. 

Members of the public began lining up in Medora as early as 6 a.m. MT to attend the president’s speech. It’s Trump’s fourth visit to North Dakota and his third as president. 

Rayann Vande Sandt of Tioga called seeing Trump the “chance of a lifetime.”

“I’ll wait in line days to see him,” Vande Sandt said.

Danette Maisey of Williston said she appreciated that Trump came to North Dakota, a state much of the country often forgets.

Brenden Bergquist of Turtle Lake said he was excited to hear about Roosevelt’s legacy and how it relates to North Dakota.

“It’s pretty unique in the sense that Teddy found his passion out here and became president soon after,” Bergquist said.

Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library aims to be ‘heart of intellectual programming’

The grand opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is being held in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the United States’ declaration of independence from Great Britain. Roosevelt spent time in the western North Dakota Badlands after the death of his wife and mother, and famously said he would not have been president if not for his time in North Dakota.

About a dozen members of the North Dakota Public Lands Coalition protested near the Fryburg exit of Interstate 94 Wednesday to show their opposition to the Trump administration’s public lands policies, which they said are counter to Roosevelt’s legacy. 

“Celebrating such an extraordinary conservation legacy deserves more than speeches and ceremonies,” Todd Leake, chair of the Sierra Club North Dakota chapter, said in a statement. “It deserves leaders willing to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife he fought so hard to conserve.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.