President Donald Trump will visit North Dakota on Wednesday to see the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the 26th president’s life built in the rugged landscape where the young easterner built his conservation values while ranching and hunting in the 1880s. The 96,000-square-foot library opens over the weekend on July 4, coinciding with celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary, but Trump is coming early to see the $450 million project championed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum when he was governor of North Dakota.
Trump will make the trip aboard his new Air Force One, a Boeing 747 retrofitted from a plane gifted by Qatar. The jet marks a dramatic shift in the presidential aircraft, featuring a navy belly and red and gold stripes replacing the iconic light blue exterior that has been standard since the Kennedy administration. Trump said he asked Boeing, which is developing new planes for presidential use set to arrive in 2028, if there were any countries that had suitable substitutes available in the interim. “I said, ‘Who has the best one?’ They said, ‘Qatar,'” Trump recalled, adding that he was assured the aircraft was unlike any other plane in the world. The refurbished jet features luxury amenities including plush carpets, lie-flat seats, and wood paneling. The plane is estimated to be worth $400 million, though the government has likely spent substantially more retrofitting it for presidential use, with security upgrades potentially exceeding $1 billion according to aviation experts.
Trump will be the library’s first official visitor, according to Library Executive Director Robbie Lauf, and will speak at a Western-themed amphitheater at an event run by Freedom 250, the Trump-created group the president has tapped to organize festivities this week. All living presidents were invited to the grand opening of the library, which joins more than a dozen such facilities throughout the country examining the lives and legacies of U.S. presidents from Ronald Reagan in California to Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York to Herbert Hoover in Iowa.
The library sits in Medora, a remote town in the North Dakota Badlands. Roosevelt visited Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison, and on Valentine’s Day in 1884, he suffered a devastating blow when his mother and wife died hours apart in the same house in New York. Devastated, Roosevelt came to Dakota to ranch cattle and hunt big game during visits mostly from 1884 to 1887. He underwent deep personal growth from his experiences, working alongside cowboys and standing up to a bully in a bar. Roosevelt later said he never would have been president were it not for his experiences in North Dakota.
The landscape transformed Roosevelt into a passionate conservationist. His time in the Badlands inspired landmark conservation efforts, including the creation of national forests and wildlife sanctuaries. After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt used his authority to protect approximately 230 million acres of public land. The Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with more than 70,000 acres, now sits near the new library and features scenic trails where visitors can observe bison and wild horses roaming through the colorful, rugged terrain.
Burgum championed the library to North Dakota’s Republican-led legislature in 2019 when he was governor, touting its tourism potential. The legislature approved a $50 million operations endowment, requiring library planners to raise $100 million in private donations—a goal met in 2020. Donations have totaled about $354 million as of early 2026. Donors include oil executive Harold Hamm, the Waltons of Walmart fame, and Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund. Burgum himself has been a significant contributor.
The trip underscores Trump’s esteem for Burgum, who has become a key figure in championing the president’s expansive renovation projects around Washington. Trump has often praised and compared himself favorably to Roosevelt. In 2020, he declared that he was “the number one environmental president since Teddy Roosevelt.” Trump began his second term by trumpeting construction of the Panama Canal during the Roosevelt administration, even suggesting that the U.S. might seek to take back the waterway from Panama to curb Chinese influence.
The library’s architecture reflects the landscape it inhabits. The facility features a gently sloping roof that mimics the surrounding buttes, covered in native grasses and walking paths that allow visitors to explore the roofline. The design, by Norwegian landscape and architecture firm Snøhetta, was crafted to blend with rather than dominate the natural environment. According to the architects, nature is transformative here and will transform new visitors to the library.
On Friday, Trump also plans to visit South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore for Independence Day fireworks, as he did in 2020. The combination of events brings official celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday to a region synonymous with American westward expansion and the conservation movement that Roosevelt championed.