"He'll Be Lucky To Have A Bookmobile": The Future Of Joe Biden's Presidential Library In Doubt As Donations Fail To Come In
Former President Joe Biden’s planned monument to his presidency is becoming a brutal reality check on his legacy.
In September, the Biden camp announced plans to build his presidential library in Delaware - assembling a team of former aides, friends, and political allies to oversee the project, which is supposed to include a museum and archive.
A senior member of the Biden Foundation described the project to CBS News as a “vibrant and lasting space where history, learning, and civic leadership come together, inspiring future generations to lead with purpose, serve their communities, and strengthen our nation.”
However, a recent New York Times report suggests Biden will likely have to scale back the project.
“Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has raised only a small fraction of the money needed to construct a presidential library,” the paper reported Saturday, “leaving uncertainty about when a library might be built and its viability as a stand-alone project, according to public filings and interviews with his donors.”
In filings with the Internal Revenue Service, Biden’s library foundation revealed that it had not received any new donations in 2024, the final year of his presidency. The foundation was instead seeded entirely with $4 million left over from his 2021 inauguration.
The library foundation declined to say what it had raised in 2025. It said that Mr. Biden was only now beginning to actively raise money. He is holding the first event for potential library donors on Monday in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood.
Still, Mr. Biden’s foundation told the I.R.S. this year that it expected to bring in just $11.3 million, total, by the end of 2027. That would be far below the pace set by other recent presidents, and far less than the $200 million that Mr. Biden’s aides say they want to raise eventually.
As a result, Biden insiders say there’s talk of folding the potential Biden library into existing Biden-related projects at the University of Delaware. According to four anonymous sources, this could let the library ride on the millions the university—Biden’s own alma mater—has already raised for a “Biden Hall” project.
It appears that no matter what happens with the project, donations will be hard to come by. The New York Times reports that even some of Joe Biden’s most reliable donors say nobody has reached out to them about contributing to his presidential library. Others in the Democratic donor class sound even less enthusiastic, and say they plan to pour their resources into battling President Trump. Others admit that bitterness over Biden’s time in office has closed their wallets entirely.
“The Biden staff, they ruined any type of good library for him,” explained John Morgan, a longtime Democratic donor. “He’ll be lucky to have a bookmobile.”
Morgan was previously one of Biden’s top bundlers.
Biden now plans to personally start raising money for his library, beginning with a Georgetown cocktail event billed as a casual meet-and-greet. But the Joe and Jill Biden Foundation doesn’t sound particularly confident in his ability to raise funds. According to IRS filings, the foundation expects to raise only about $11.3 million by the end of 2027. For comparison, George W. Bush raised $500 million before cutting the ribbon on his library. Obama’s center costs around $850 million. Trump’s team is projecting close to $900 million.
What’s happening to Biden is simple. The Democratic Party needed a placeholder to stop Trump in 2020, but there was never any genuine enthusiasm for him. When doubts about his cognitive decline became impossible to spin, his party kicked him to the curb. Now, to the Democratic donor class, Biden’s brand equity is virtually nonexistent, and the people who once filled his campaign war chest have moved on.
Joe Biden wanted a monument. What he’s getting is a mausoleum nobody wants to build.
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