We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Admin Staff a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Admin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

So, it’s less about a risk that we have taken, but rather the one we haven’t taken. At the creation of the project, it was well known that our former president possessed a vindictive streak that manifested into calls for political violence, a trait that foreshadowed the events of January 6th.

When the website was published it was decided by our director (the person at the keyboard now), in agreement with our collaborators, wrote: “With American discourse being dragged into a violent gutter by white nationalists, we are leaving our work unsigned.”

Honestly, we don’t think that the bulk of us would be actual targets of violence, but the way political discourse is going in America, it was the correct decision at the time to protect the more vulnerable and easy to find among our collaborators. It feels a little like cowardice at times, but the decision was made and it would be unethical to go back on our collaborators who have legitimate fears of unmasking. And it’s not because we are ashamed of what we said or that we can’t face criticism, it’s simply that we lack the resources to avoid getting shot in 2024.

The opportunity cost of this has been negative in a few ways.

The larger one is it has become very hard to fund and execute a temporary gallery exhibition in advance of the next presidential election. Most crowdfunding sites – Kickstarter included – do not allow anonymous entries, even for safety reasons, and we don’t have the self funding resources to rent a gallery, execute the project, or most importantly provide our gallery collaborator security (a real need to speaks to the same trend of why we are anonymous in the first place).

We had a tentative agreement with a gallery in a red(ish) southern state to move forward, but since we have been unable to get funding, that deal died on the vine.

This is another case of where legitimate concerns over political violence indirectly restricts political speech. We have flown to the gallery, measured it, sketched it, and we simply can’t fund it because we can’t remove our mask.

If anyone is reading this and wants to host us this summer / fall for a month, please contact us, we’d love to pull this off.

On a lighter note, the smaller issue is our director is a practicing architect in New York, one of the bluest states in the country (though that isn’t his hometown, a far more red space). One of the funnier moments of the site is we got a modest and kind donation from a building that our director had an active and unrelated project under construction at the time, an insane and humorous coincidence. Frankly the amount of fees we are forfeiting by keeping the mask on is staggering to our day job.

But, we made a promise to our collaborators at the beginning of the project and we don’t want those on our team with legitimate fears at risk when the project’s subject is openly calling for violence on a daily basis.

Admin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So, the project is a reimagining of the presidential library, a building type that is notorious for whitewashing the sins of the office holder.

When we watched in horror as a minority of American voters elected a bigoted white nationalist philanderer to our nation’s highest office, we mainly drank a lot in a midtown west bar outside the Clinton watch party (no alcohol there, and once they called Wisconsin, drinks were necessary). Many of the people at our table were the exact people Trump has made a career castigating: people of color, members of the LGBT+ community, immigrants. All respected professionals, all working with honor for their families and communities. The kind of people that make this country actually great watched a mediocrity who belittled them rise on a tide of hatred and ignorance.

It was one of the saddest days of our director’s life.

But, as an architect, his first dark thought. “This jackass will now get a presidential library one day.”

And the website was purchased that week. the rest is history.

Honestly, we really hoped 2020 was the end of this story, even understanding that Trump is a symptom of a larger problem. Him winning the nomination as a man found civilly liable for sexual assault while facing scores of criminal charges of election interference and insurrection is a stain on our nation’s soul.

So, I suppose we need to get updating the site and get back in the fray of it.

So here (djtrumplibrary.com), we kick a bad man in the nuts.
And here (https://bitterdrunkenarchitects.com/), we cause good trouble.

Basically, it’s architecture in service of critiquing those that absolutely deserve it.
We already have ideas for our next two “buildings”…

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Creatives work in creative fields because we have to. It’s a need to create, a compulsion.

Anyone who makes their living in design (graphics, film, architecture), understands that if we are very lucky, on a good year, we might almost earn as much as a summer intern at Goldman Sacks.

And that’s actually ok.
I studied buildings, I make buildings.
They studied money, they make money.
Hard to argue that logic.

And I like my clients, who are largely in the financial field.
Most are really good people actually.

I’m a capitalist and I work hard, so I earn a decent living and have a fulfilling career.

But, being a capitalist doesn’t mean a pure capitalist, some socialism makes the medicine go down better.

Why isn’t health care nationalized?

A healthier workplace would work harder and be more effective. If we had medicare for all, we’d have a work place that could take more risks, not stay at a job “for the benefits”, and make MORE jobs.

Why is housing so expensive?

Why can’t we build more? What happened to public works projects?

If you work harder, you should live better, that’s an American ethos I can strongly co-sign.

But it can’t be where some get all, and all get little. You can reward hard work without the insane wealth concentration we see now. This would help all creatives while also helping everyone else as well.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Ha ha, this one is easy.

As a way to tip an artist you like? Awesome, you like the art, you paid for a .jpg that says you’re a fan, like merch.
Love it.

As an investment vehicle? L.O.L. That was an insane scam.

One of our collaborators asked about when we would make NFTs and we decided it was unethical because it was an id*ot bubble that would pop. That’s decision that has aged well.

Contact Info:

• Website: djtrumplibrary.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DJTrumpLibrary