Jim Byron | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1993 (age 31–32) |
| Occupations | Senior archivist, National Archives and Records Administration |
| Years active | February 16, 2025 – present |
James T. Byron [1] (born 1993) was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump to a temporary senior archivist position at the National Archives and Records Administrationin February 2025. He previously served as president of the Richard Nixon Foundation. Prior to Byron's hiring, the previous National Archivist, Colleen Joy Shogan, was fired by Trump. This caused William J. Bosanko to automatically became acting Archivist, and he resigned from within days. To fill the role, Trump officially appointed sitting Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, but also hired Byron to carry out "day to day" operations of the National Archives.
James Byron is a native of Santa Monica, California and grew up in Orange County. [1] In 2015, he graduated from Chapman University with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a minor in history. He was involved with Phi Delta Theta, and went on to serve on the fraternity's advisory board in California. [1]
When he was 14, Byron began his career at the Richard Nixon Foundation as a marketing intern in 2007. He got the job after he wrote a letter to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, and later recalled: "much to my surprise I received a response". [2] Byron says he was not motivated by a particular affinity for Richard Nixon, but by "geographic proximity" [3] and his interest in U.S. presidential history. [4] Upon his college graduation, Byron joined the Nixon Foundation's full time staff. He was eventually promoted to executive vice president, and worked closely with the Nixon Foundation's then-president, Hugh Hewitt, a well-known former conservative radio host who became a mentor to Byron. [1] [5]
As executive vice president of the Nixon Foundation, Byron oversaw the Nixon Library's reopening celebration in 2016 following a 14-month renovation that had cost $15 million. [6] These changes calmed previous tensions over Nixon's legacy that had flamed between private Nixon Foundation staff and historians from the National Archives. [7] Presidential libraries hold government-owned records, and are overseen by the National Archives in accordance with the Presidential Records Act of 1978. However, private presidential foundations contribute significant funding. [8] He also coordinated a $25 million capital campaign with the campaign chairman Fred Malek from about 2014 to 2017. [1] In 2018, Byron published the official Nixon Library souvenir guide, A President Comes Home. [9]
On November 3, 2021, when Byron was 28 years old, he was unanimously elected president and CEO of the Nixon Foundation by its board of directors. As leader of the Nixon Foundation, Byron has generally declined to offer political opinions or judgements regarding Nixon's legacy. He views the Watergate scandal as just one part of Nixon's complex legacy, and believes that the museum "encourages visitors to make up their own mind about Nixon." [4] In 2020, the Nixon Museum displayed mail correspondence between Nixon and Donald Trump from the 1980s and 1990s. [3] In the letters, Nixon passed along a prediction from his wife Pat Nixon, telling Trump: "whenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner!". [3] In September 2020, the Nixon Library hosted an interview with Donald Trump, Jr. as part of its series of "great American authors". [10] Byron defended the museum's ties to Trump, saying "anything that increases interest in President Nixon is a good thing". [3] He declined to draw comparisons between Nixon and Trump in an interview with Politico in 2022. [3]
On January 6, 2025, in a phone interview with Donald Trump, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said that Trump's federal prosecution over mishandling of classified documents had occurred because the head of the National Archive at the time "hated you". [11] Trump responded that he planned to fire the National Archivist. [11] The sitting Archivist at that time was Colleen Shogan, who had been appointed in May 2023 after the documents case and was largely uninvolved, though she carried out her agency's planned letter to the Department of Justice regarding the documents. On February 7, 2025, Trump abruptly fired Shogan from head of the US National Archive. Though he did not provide a reason, speculation that Shogan had carried out National Archives brought up Trump's mishandling of classified materials in 2022, before Shogan was appointed to the position in May 2023. [12] Deputy archivist William J. Bosanko automatically became acting archivist upon Shogan's firing, but soon resigned (reportedly due to pressure from Trump). [13]
Federal law requires the next appointee either be someone currently serving a Senate-confirmed position, or a civil servant with at least a General Schedule 15 level and 90 of the previous 365 days. [13] Trump named sitting Secretary of State Marco Rubio the acting administrator of the agency in title, as Rubio fulfilled the first criteria, but gave day-to-day control to Byron who lacks both possible qualifications. [13]
In a post on Truth Social on February 16, Trump declared that Jim Byron as "Senior Advisor" to the new National Archives head, Marco Rubio. According to the post, Byron "will manage the National Archives on a day-to-day basis, while we continue our search for a full-time Archivist". [14] Byron took a leave of absence from the Nixon Foundation to accept the role. [15] [14]
Several days into his tenure, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum canceled three upcoming book events that discussed social issues such as the civil rights movement, and one author was informed by her publicist that the library could not longer hold events without approval from the National Archives and was undergoing staff cuts. [16] In February 2025, Byron wrote in an email to the National Archives staff that the agency was "strategically examining its operations agency-wide to ensure that it makes the best use of the funds it has been given by the American taxpayers and that all of its operations closely track with its mission and Congressional statutes." Under Byron, the National Archives fired 27 staff members, including a Nixon Library executive, Tim Naftali, with whom he reportedly disagreed. [17]
On July 21, 2025 released files containing more than 230,000 pages about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in accordance with Executive Order 14176 to declassify files on the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. signed by President Donald Trump on January 23, 2025. [18] In honor of the National Archives Museum's 250th anniversary, a permanent exhibit called "The American Story" opened October 23, 2025, with an AI-designed selection of documents based on the personal interests indicated by each visitor. [19] [20]
Byron lives in Costa Mesa and enjoys playing tennis and golf. [9]
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