First lady Jill Biden pays homage to Harry Truman, references Taylor Swift during KC trip

First lady Jill Biden met with Kansas City area students Wednesday at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum as they explored the Missouri-born president’s decision to desegregate the U.S. military, as diversity efforts in the military have once again become a flashpoint in Congress.

Biden, who is a community college professor, visited the library to learn about their civic literacy programs in her second trip to the Kansas City area in two years. She is scheduled to speak at an event in support of President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign early Wednesday evening.

At the Truman Library, the first lady stressed the importance of civics education, saying she believed there aren’t enough people who know and understand how the U.S. government works, from the federal government down to the local level.

“I think people really have a negative opinion of government, they don’t see the hard work, they don’t see the perseverance,” Biden said. “They don’t see all the thought and the hard work and the critical thinking that go into each and every decision.”

Biden was joined by local leaders, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, Jackson County Executive Frank White and Independence Mayor Rory Rowland.

The first lady met with Kansas City area teachers who discussed the ways they’ve worked with the library to teach about civics and history.

She then visited with William Chrisman High School students after they completed an activity in the museum’s White House Decision Center, which guides students through a role playing exercise confronting one of Truman’s most difficult decisions – an executive order desegregating the military.

The decision was celebrated in Washington in July during a three day symposium, which came at a time when Congress is once again battling over diversity initiatives in the military.

Biden sat in a replica of the White House briefing room while she heard from three students who played the role of president during the exercise and listened to their reasoning on whether to issue the executive order.

Truman attended William Chrisman High School, part of the Independence School District, in the late 1890s, then called Independence High School, when he was growing up in the Kansas City suburb.

After the demonstration, Biden stressed the importance of learning about government and urged the students to think about running for office one day, saying it was a worthwhile profession that often gets portrayed negatively. Only one student raised their hand when asked if they’d considered public office.

“Being a politician is an honorable career,” Biden said. “And so I want you to take the critical skills that you’ve learned through this opportunity and when you hear something, don’t just take everything on face value, research it, look into it, look at other people’s points of view, so that you can really look with a critical eye and what’s really going on.”

The focus on Truman’s decision to desegregate the military comes after the Truman Library Institute held a three day symposium in Washington in July celebrating the 75th anniversary of the executive order, including a speech from President Joe Biden on the opening night.

But 75 years after Truman signed the executive order, Congress is still battling over diversity initiatives in the military. Conservative lawmakers – like Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican – have criticized the Department of Defense’s diversity, equity and inclusion office.

Republicans are pushing to remove funding for the military’s diversity efforts in the annual defense spending bill, even as military leaders have said diversity efforts are important to help the military reflect the population.

Both Schmitt and Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, were among the minority of senators who voted against Biden’s pick for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff — Air Force General C.Q. Brown, who was the first Black man to be named chief of staff for the Air Force in 2020.

Both cited Brown’s support for the military’s diversity efforts.

The first lady ended her trip to the museum with a visit to Truman’s grave site on the library grounds, where she left a bouquet made of clippings from the White House garden.

She then left for a fundraiser in support of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, at the home of Dan Nilsen, who founded the Kansas City area event production company Bishop-McCann.

Nilsen is a longtime Democratic donor. He contributed to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, as well as Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. He donated more than $10,600 to Clinton’s campaign, political action committee and joint fundraising committee for the 2016 presidential election.

Already, Nilsen has donated $6,600 to Biden’s campaign and another $10,325 for Biden’s joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee for the 2024 campaign.

Attendees included lawmakers from both sides of the state line and officials from both the Kansas and Missouri Democratic Parties.

At the fundraiser, Biden portrayed her husband as a professional, compared to the Republican Party and its front-runner, former President Donald Trump.

She said world leaders and their spouses came up to her at the U.N. General Assembly and told her what a “relief it was to have the U.S. back.”

“Look what’s going on right this week,” Biden said. “I mean government shutdowns, ridiculous impeachment, playing politics instead of governing, instead of joining Joe and getting things done for the American people.”

“This is why we have very clear choices: chaos, corruption, and crisis, or strong, steady leadership that actually gets things done.”

At the fundraiser, the first lady also made a reference to one of the other most powerful women in the United States — Taylor Swift.

“It’s been quite a week for visitors,” Biden said, referencing Swift’s Sunday appearance at Arrowhead Stadium and getaway ride with Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

This story has been updated to clarify the details of the first lady’s recent visit to the United Nations.