President Trump fired the librarian of Congress because she promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, the White House said Friday, making Dr. Carla Hayden one of the most high-profile leaders of color to be targeted in the administration’s campaign to suppress discussions about race and gender at America’s cultural institutions.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the administration believed Dr. Hayden “did not fit the needs of the American people,” and that her firing resulted from “quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of D.E.I.”
Ms. Leavitt did not offer any evidence of “D.E.I.” pursuits Dr. Hayden engaged in. She accused Dr. Hayden of allowing “inappropriate books in the library for children.”
The Library of Congress does not lend books to adults or children and as the world’s largest library houses over 34 million books and printed materials.
“We don’t believe that she was serving the interests of the American taxpayer well,” Ms. Leavitt added. “So she has been removed from her position, and the president is well within his rights to do that.”
Dr. Hayden could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Dr. Hayden, whose dismissal shocked academics and infuriated congressional Democrats, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2016, and served throughout Mr. Trump’s first term.
Dr. Hayden was the latest high-ranking Black government official to be axed in the administration’s crusade against D.E.I. — which has become a hallmark of his second term and frequently targeted women and people of color.
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot known as C.Q. who became only the second African American to be appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was replaced amid the president’s insistence that the military’s leadership was too mired in diversity issues.
Dr. Hayden had also become a conservative target as the administration ramped up efforts to purge the federal government of “woke” employees and entities.
Hours before Dr. Hayden was notified of her dismissal on Thursday, a conservative group called the American Accountability Foundation called for her firing on social media.
“The current #LibrarianOfCongress Carla Hayden is woke, anti-Trump, and promotes trans-ing kids,” the organization posted. “It’s time to get her OUT and hire a new guy for the job!”
Hours after her dismissal had been made public, the group praised the president. “THANK YOU @POTUS!!!!,” they wrote. “Woke & radical Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired!”
Dr. Hayden became the librarian of Congress after a lengthy run as the chief librarian in Baltimore, her longtime home, where she had overhauled the city’s struggling public library system. She was fired in a two-sentence email from Trent Morse, the deputy director of White House personnel, which addressed the esteemed librarian simply as “Carla.”
In a letter to the library’s staff on Friday, Robert R. Newlen, Dr. Hayden’s deputy who has known her for 40 years and replaced her in the interim, praised her reputation as an “unbiased, nonpartisan, energetic public servant,” in the U.S. Congress.
Tim Balk contributed reporting.
