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Politics19 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 47%(9)Centre 42%(8)Right 11%(2)

Percentages are shares of the 19 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .

Trust

82/100

Craft

68/100

Hype

32/100

19 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

Only 2 of the 19 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

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

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 9 Aug 2026, 03:45, and will add the sides that appear.

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

9 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

8 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

2 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.

Read it at the source

19 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

9
Show 1 more

Centre

8

Right

2

Not rated

0

No outlet in this group ran the story.

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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