Photo by Michael Standaert/North Dakota News Cooperative - https://www.newscoopnd.org/
MEDORA, ND (North Dakota Monitor/North Dakota News Cooperative/KFGO) – President Donald Trump presented a new artifact for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library during its dedication ceremony Wednesday — the Medal of Honor given to Roosevelt by Congress.
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 dedicated to 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 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.
The public can watch a livestream of Trump’s speech from the White House YouTube page. C-SPAN also aired coverage, and North Dakota News Cooperative is publishing updated images of Trump’s visit.
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.
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.
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