Many years from now, when the history books about the Trump era are written, they may yet note that his downfall came not at the hands of his political rivals, the Deep State, or even the voting public. The end, when it finally came, began when he picked a fight with an archivist.
The archivists of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are no ordinary librarians, to be sure; they are the keepers of the presidential records — every memo, letter, gift and executive order that passes across a president’s desk. They painstakingly document and store all of those records on behalf of the general public, to whom those items belong.
