Trump’s firing of the U.S. government archivist is far worse than it might seem

Amid his dramatic reshaping of the federal government, President Donald Trump’s latest high-profile dismissal could become among his most consequential.

On Feb. 7, Trump fired Colleen Shogan from her role as Archivist of the United States, the head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and government official responsible for overseeing the preservation—both physical and digital—and promulgation of government records. Shogan’s dismissal marks the first time that a sitting president has fired the nation’s archivist since the position was established in the 1930s. 

“This evening, President Trump fired me. No cause or reason was cited,” Shogan said in a statement on her LinkedIn at the time. “It has been an honor serving as the 11th Archivist of the United States. I have zero regrets – I absolutely did my best every day for the National Archives and the American people.”

The dismissal wasn’t exactly unexpected. The New York Times reports that Trump had grown to “despise” the agency for its role in alerting the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022 to his alleged misappropriation and mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate of Mar-a-Lago following his first term in office—a case a federal judge dismissed in July of last year. (His ire extended to Shogan despite her not assuming the Archivist post until 2023, months after the agency alerted the DOJ.)

And Shogan won’t be the last NARA official to get the axe: The president has reportedly in recent months drawn up a “list” of staff to fire in retaliation for their role in the classified documents investigation, according to Rolling Stone. (Shogan, NARA, and the White House did not respond to Fast Company’s requests for comment.)

Trump’s revenge tour appears to be expanding to every corner of the federal government. But unlike some of Trump’s other high-profile firings, the dismissal of Shogan also has the potential to dramatically undermine the scaffolding of American democracy. 

NARA does more than just collect, digitize, and maintain government records. As an independent agency within the executive branch, it’s responsible for, among other things, administering the Electoral College process by providing the official instructions for how the states transmit electors’ votes to Congress; overseeing the process of ratifying new Constitutional amendments; managing the document classification system and, in turn, the delicate balance between public transparency and national security; and publicizing the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register, the two documents that codify rules and chronicle the daily goings-on, respectively, of the federal government.

If the U.S. Constitution is the core operating system of the U.S. government, the Archivist of the United States and NARA are the maintainers of the system’s foundational codebase of legal and historical documents.

“In a democracy, you need an apolitical, independent actor whose job is to do essential things like record, certify, and provide access [to documents] for public inspection,” says Dominic Byrd-McDevitt, the director of community engagement at the Digital Public Library of America. “That’s the reason the archivist administers things like the Electoral College and constitutional amendment process: In order for these processes to have legitimacy, NARA is required by law to certify certificates of ascertainment and ratification documents and make them available to the public for viewing.”

NARA’s critical role in controlling the official documents that are the lifeblood of American governance requires that the agency remain a neutral steward of the government’s entire legal and regulatory regime. The statute regarding the office of the Archivist of the United States stipulates that the position be appointed “without regard to political affiliations and solely on the basis of the professional qualifications required to perform the duties and responsibilities of the office of Archivist.”

But archivists and historians are already bracing for Trump to install political loyalists at the agency who will bend to his will. (Much as he’s done elsewhere.) A partisan archivist could lead to biased (or outright malicious) decision-making when it comes to document access, preservation, and release; delay or block access to records in compliance with the President Records Act to protect political interests; or even, at the very worst, facilitate meddling with the Electoral College or federal regulations in the service of maintaining power. It’s not so hard, in this context, to imagine a world where someone deliberately destroys official records in order to obstruct an investigation into potentially illegal government activities. And which recent president has tried to interfere with the Electoral College, destroy documents, and wipe out government regulations wholesale?

All of these factors not only create a precedent for future political exploitation by subsequent administrations, but threaten to undermine the U.S. government’s historical integrity and democratic accountability. Bureaucracies maintain their institutional legitimacy by consistently applying rules, regulations, and procedures, and injecting potential political malfeasance into the organization tasked with maintaining those rules means corrupting the very mechanisms that define the shape and scope of American governance.

Indeed, Trump already appears to have broken the law in his firing of Shogan. In a letter addressed to Trump regarding Shogan’s dismissal published on Feb. 10, the American Historical Association (AHA), the oldest professional organization for historians in the United States, noted that the president was legally compelled to, in the words of Title 44 of the U.S. Code, “communicate the reasons for any such removal to each House of the Congress.” Whether Trump decides to actually do so may signal what’s ahead of the agency. 

“The American Historical Association awaits the White House’s compliance with the law by informing Congress of the reasons for Dr. Shogan’s dismissal,” wrote AHA executive director James Grossman. “Democracy rests on the rule of law. And the history of the United States rests on unfettered access to the archival record.”

Without additional action from Trump, Deputy Archivist (and career NARA staffer) William Bosanko will now execute the Shogan’s responsibilities, a temporary reprieve for those concerned about the institution’s integrity. But with Secretary of State Marco Rubio rumored to be assuming control of the agency as its acting head (a move that Byrd-McDevitt points out would be illegal) and the rest of the chaos currently roiling the federal government, it is unlikely that NARA and its workforce will emerge unscathed.

As it happens, Byrd-McDevitt held the title of Digital Content Specialist at NARA from 2011 to 2019. “I worked there: They are civil servants doing their jobs,” he says. “That shouldn’t put a target on their back.”

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