Trump visits new Teddy Roosevelt library in the badlands: ‘He had a freakin’ wild life’

President Donald Trump visited North Dakota on Wednesday to see the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the life of America’s 26th president, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where Roosevelt built his conservation values in the 1880s. During a tour of the 96,000-square-foot library and in a speech afterward, Trump spoke admiringly of Roosevelt and compared himself favorably to the former president, who he described as the embodiment of the American spirit, praising his toughness as a leader and outdoorsman. “He had a freakin’ wild life,” Trump told an audience at a Western-themed amphitheater. “He didn’t want to be quiet. He wanted to be great.” The official opening of the library on Saturday coincides with July 4th celebrations honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Trump made the trip to see the $450 million project aboard his new Air Force One, a Boeing 747 given to the United States by Qatar. The visit was a boost for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a former governor of North Dakota, while also bringing the nation’s birthday festivities to a region synonymous with its westward expansion. In his speech after the tour, Trump weaved between his own administration’s work while returning to lessons drawn from Roosevelt’s life, recounting stories of bravery during Roosevelt’s time in the West and as president. “He was something special,” Trump said. “He was a really great man. He was a man the likes of which you may never see again.” During the visit, Trump announced that his administration was giving $750,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the library’s first year. Roosevelt was a New York native with a strong North Dakota connection Roosevelt visited Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison. On Valentine’s Day the next year, his mother and wife died hours apart in the same house in New York. Devastated, Roosevelt came t