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Politics27 outlets ran this5 min read

Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and Biden

A 250th-anniversary series curated by the archivist Trump fired features essays on 43 presidents and 30 first ladies

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
FILE - President George W. Bush, center, poses with President-elect Barack Obama, and former presidents, from left, George H.W. Bush, left, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, right, Jan. 7, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

What this story says

  • The In Pursuit project is a 250th-anniversary series featuring essays on 43 U.S. presidents and 30 first ladies, published weekly into December 2026.
  • George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton wrote essays for the project, which excludes Donald Trump and Joe Biden as too recent for historical appraisal.
  • Colleen Shogan, the U.S. archivist fired by Trump in 2025, is curating the project, which aims to present nonpartisan lessons from American history.
  • Some essays, including Bush’s on George Washington, address themes of power and democracy without naming Trump but with clear contemporary parallels.

Who covered it

Left 42%(11)Centre 46%(12)Right 12%(3)

Percentages are shares of the 26 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 27 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

82/100

Craft

68/100

Hype

32/100

27 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 3 of the 26 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Three former U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, contributed essays to the In Pursuit project, a series marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The project features 73 essays on 43 presidents and 30 first ladies, published chronologically and weekly until December 2026.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden were not included in the series. The project’s curator, Colleen Shogan, said the decision was made to exclude presidents considered too recent for historical appraisal. Shogan, the former U.S. archivist, was fired by Trump in February 2025 without explanation. She told the Associated Press that contributors were instructed to avoid partisan or ideological framing.

The project is organised by More Perfect, a nonpartisan alliance of presidential centres, academics and democracy-focused organisations. Other contributors include Chief Justice John Roberts, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Karl Rove and historian Michael Beschloss. The essays address both the successes and failures of past presidents, a contrast to Trump’s calls for federal institutions to adopt patriotic interpretations of history.

What the reports agree on

All 19 reports confirm that the In Pursuit project includes essays by Clinton, Bush and Obama. They agree that Trump and Biden were excluded as too recent for historical assessment. The project’s nonpartisan intent, its curation by Shogan, and its publication schedule into December 2026 are also undisputed.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated digests mentioned Colleen Shogan’s firing by Trump or her role as curator of the project. The centre-rated digests did not carry the contemporary parallels drawn in the essays, such as Bush’s focus on Washington’s humility or McChrystal’s emphasis on “law over loyalty.” The left-rated digests did not include the full list of contributors beyond the three former presidents.

“Everybody took those instructions and that guidance very seriously. The goal was for all Americans to feel welcome to be able to read these lessons and essays and learn something from them.”

— Colleen Shogan, former U.S. archivist and In Pursuit project curator
Tags:#USPresidents#HistoricalEssays#TrumpExclusion#ColleenShogan#InPursuitProject

Coverage settled. We checked this 55 times and stopped on 14 Aug 2026, 19:00. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

11 rated outlets

  • The nine left-rated digests and the two full reports from the Associated Press and Washington Top News led on the project’s nonpartisan framing and its exclusion of Trump and Biden. The Associated Press report quoted Shogan’s statement that the goal was for all Americans to “feel welcome to be able to read these lessons and essays and learn something from them.”
  • The left-rated reports highlighted the contemporary parallels in the essays, particularly Bush’s focus on George Washington’s voluntary relinquishment of power. The Associated Press described Bush’s essay as difficult to read “without thinking of Trump’s reluctance to cede power after his 2020 election defeat.” The reports also noted the project’s contrast with Trump’s calls for patriotic historical narratives.

Centre

12 rated outlets

  • The eight centre-rated digests led on the involvement of the three former presidents and the project’s 250th-anniversary framing. Fortune’s digest noted that Shogan, the archivist Trump fired, was curating the project. The centre-rated reports carried the detail that the essays cover 43 presidents and 30 first ladies, and that they are published weekly into December.
  • None of the centre-rated digests mentioned the contemporary parallels drawn in the essays, such as Bush’s focus on Washington’s humility or McChrystal’s emphasis on “law over loyalty.” The project’s nonpartisan intent and Shogan’s role were included, but without the emphasis on Trump’s absence seen in left-rated reports.

Right

3 rated outlets

  • The two right-rated digests from the New York Post and Breitbart led on the participation of Clinton, Bush and Obama in the project. Neither digest mentioned Shogan’s role as curator or the reason for her firing. Both noted that the essays cover presidents back to George Washington but did not highlight the exclusion of Trump and Biden or the contemporary parallels in the essays.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and…?
Of the 26 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 42% are rated left, 46% are rated centre, 12% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 27. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 26 rated outlets on this story, 42% are rated left, 46% are rated centre, 12% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and… biased?
Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and Biden is one event reported by 27 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Clinton, Bush and Obama write presidential essays excluding Trump and…?
27 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why were Trump and Biden excluded from the In Pursuit project?
The In Pursuit project excluded Donald Trump and Joe Biden because both were judged too recent for historical appraisal. The project’s curator, Colleen Shogan, said the decision was made to set aside the passions of the current political moment and focus on presidents whose legacies could be assessed with historical perspective.
Who is curating the In Pursuit project?
Colleen Shogan, the former U.S. archivist, is curating the In Pursuit project. Shogan was fired by Donald Trump in February 2025 without explanation. She told the Associated Press that the project aims to present nonpartisan lessons from American history for all Americans to learn from.
What themes do the essays in the In Pursuit project address?
The essays in the In Pursuit project address themes of power, democracy and the integrity of the presidency. Some essays, such as George W. Bush’s on George Washington, focus on the voluntary relinquishment of power, while others, like Stanley McChrystal’s on Ulysses S. Grant, emphasise the choice between law and personal loyalty.
Which outlets reported on the contemporary parallels in the essays?
The left-rated reports, including the Associated Press and Washington Top News, highlighted contemporary parallels in the essays. They noted that Bush’s essay on George Washington’s humility was difficult to read without thinking of Trump’s reluctance to cede power after the 2020 election. The centre and right-rated digests did not mention these parallels.

Read it at the source

27 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

11
Show 3 more

Centre

12
Show 4 more

Right

3

Not rated

1

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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