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CorvusBlackthorne Apparently NARA holds leases for presidential records. So I guess just the building construction is privately funded.
I just looked it up. Since Herbert Hoover, presidential libraries are operated by NARA. Libraries for earlier presidents are operated by states, universities, and other organizations. The Obama library is the only one since Calvin Coolidge that's outside the official NARA system. Instead, the nonprofit Obama Foundation is partnering with NARA to digitize the records, while the building itself will be owned by the City of Chicago. So if NARA is no longer involved, the Obama Foundation will handle the records by itself.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Biden library, which probably won't be seriously underway until after Trump is out of office.
