MEDORA, ND — President Trump paid tribute to Theodore Roosevelt as a “great man” while cutting the ribbon to his new presidential library in the Dakota Badlands — after interacting with an artificial intelligence-powered hologram of his predecessor.
“He never stopped, never quit and never surrendered in pursuit of his dreams,” Trump said of his fellow New Yorker, who was also born into wealth before dramatically recasting the Republican Party as a trust-busting reformer.
“He had a freakin’ wild life,” Trump said in a largely improvised hour-long speech, as he recounted Roosevelt’s rise from a thin, asthma-plagued New Yorker into a “strong as an ox” outdoorsman, war hero and builder of the Panama Canal.
Trump regaled a large audience with stories of Roosevelt’s life in the North Dakota town between 1884 and 1887, including chasing criminals 300 miles and hunting a grizzly bear, disproving a doctor from his youth who said he would have to isolate himself indoors.
“He didn’t want to be quiet, he wanted to be great,” Trump proclaimed of Roosevelt, who led the nation from 1901-1909.
“He summoned the will to transcend tragedy and triumph and defeat heartbreak with hard work,” Trump said after briefly riding a train toward the library and then spending about two hours looking at museum exhibits.
The library used AI technology to develop a hologram of the former president, who spoke to Trump when he was touring the Oval Office exhibit.
The real and AI presidents discussed the Panama Canal, which Trump pines to return the passage to US control.
Trump asked if the crucial trade corridor was Roosevelt’s proudest accomplishment, to which the long-dead politician gave a lengthy reply, rattling off other feats.
Roosevelt made multiple trips to the American West during his life but described his years in Medora as transformative after his wife and mother both died of different causes within hours of each other on Valentine’s Day 1884, when Roosevelt was just 25.
“In his library, we find his diary open to the page from 1884 when his mother and his wife died on the very same day in the very same house,” the president said, referring to the Manhattan townhouse that stood less than a block from the present-day Trump Tower.
“He arrived at this town narrow-chested, 140 pounds… He was shattered from the death of these two people that he loved the most, and his body and his spirit were pretty much broken.”
“Theodore Roosevelt did not surrender to fate,” he added.
“He came here to Medora and made himself fate’s master. That’s what people can do if they really believe and they set their mind to it and if they’re competent.
“He left here two years later, he weighed 40 pounds more, and he was strong as an ox.”
Trump delivered his remarks outdoors with a backdrop of tough-looking men dressed to resemble the Rough Riders cavalry unit that the late president led in the Spanish-American War, including in the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba in 1898.
“Speaking of Cuba, after many, many decades, it’s coming our way,” Trump added.
The troupe of burly uniformed men escorted the presidential motorcade on horseback and later some danced to “Y.M.C.A.” alongside Trump after he was finished speaking.
Trump championed various aspects of his forerunner’s political life.
“The first public cause he ever supported was a bill to fix the streets in New York City, he was very New York City and New York centric,” Trump said, also praising his efforts to take cronyism out of federal appointments and ensure merit is rewarded in hiring.
“Merit, isn’t that nice to hear?” Trump said — with the modern context of his own rollbacks of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies that disfavored white Americans.
Roosevelt is the only president to be awarded the Medal of Honor, which he received posthumously in 2001 for leadership of the “Rough Riders” during the Spanish-American War’s charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba.
Trump loaned to the library the actual medal, which historically resided in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing.
The uncomfortably warm weather resulted in many visitors getting up to leave early.
While at the library, Trump took part in several exhibits, including a recording of the famous portion from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech Citizenship in a Republic, which starts with: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”
All the other living presidents also made a recording, the library said, and they can be heard at the “In the Arena” gallery.
The library is located in Medora, where much of the surrounding area is home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Known for his conservation efforts, Roosevelt placed roughly 230 million acres of land under federal protection, creating national forests, wildlife refuges, national monuments and parks.
All living presidents were invited to Wednesday’s ceremony but only Trump attended, a spokesperson for the library told The Post.
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens to the public on July 4th.
