Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / What’s behind Trump’s Kennedy Center OBSESSION

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What’s behind Trump’s Kennedy Center OBSESSION · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Last night, thousands of people gathered around the Kennedy Center
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: chanting things like hands off, and they linked arms, forming
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a human chain to physically and symbolically protect the sole
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: memorial to a beloved slain president. It's the latest chapter
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: in President Trump's somewhat inexplicable obsession with the iconic performing
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: arts venue. The crowd fearful the president might soon make
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: good on his threat to tear down the center if
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: he can't stick his name on it. And while a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: federal judge has ruled the president must give 30 day
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: notice before he attempts any demolition there. Just look at
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: what happened with the East Wing of the White House.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And look at this photo. An eagle eyed photographer snapped this, which.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: appears to show Trump on Air Force One reviewing a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: poster board with Kennedy Center demolished on it. There is, however,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: one person standing in the way of Trump's extreme makeover
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Kennedy Center addition, and that is Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The ex-officio member of the center's board recently revealed a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: heated one-on-one exchange with Trump himself to my colleagues.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: He went into name-calling from everything from trying to say
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said,
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  Speaker 2: I think you're incompetent. And I said, I know you're incompetent.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I was not going to let him call me awful things.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: And he said he was going to hold me responsible
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  Speaker 2: if something fell out of the ceiling and killed someone.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: And I told him, I said, you're already killing people.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: We're at war.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: And the assignment desk is still here with me. When
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I watched that unfold in real time the other day,
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  Speaker 1: Eugene and Simone's faces were killing me. I mean, both
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: of them were like, he.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Said, what?
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  Speaker 1: Lizzie, one of your colleagues at sleep had a great
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: question about all of this. And it was, what did
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the Kennedy Center ever do to Trump? So I'm going
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to pose that question to you. Have the name of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: someone who was quite beloved? I mean, I think honestly,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: that is one of the things that's there also.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: And I want to go back. I grew up in Washington, right?
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  Speaker 3: I went, this is where I went to see the
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Nutcracker with my mom at Christmas. This is a place
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: that feels sacred and it feels like, you know, you
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: walk past the, they used to call it the chewing
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  Speaker 3: gum sculpture of Kennedy and I think that's the thing
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: he craves, right? The adulation of the kind of people
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  Speaker 3: who would go to the Kennedy Center in black tie.
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  Speaker 3: That is the thing that he has wanted his whole life,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: according to every biography that has ever been written about him.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: The Kennedy Center seems to be that in a nutshell.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: But it's important for the people of Washington, D.C. As
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: a native Washingtonian, it actually makes me really angry. If
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: you put the politics aside, this is a special place
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: that kids who grow up there get. to maybe go
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: once a year, once every five years. That makes me
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: really sad.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of the reporting is not just
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: about his own, like, desire to be recognized in that way,
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  Speaker 1: but also that he has this sort of personal obsession
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: with the Kennedy family and their legacy. So if you have,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: you know, you adore that family, why would you want
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to demolish this building, Dean?
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: He's Can we just quickly say Joyce Beatty is amazing.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: You know, I just wrote about her. What a fighter.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump, they tried to silence her. They literally muted
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: her when she was on the phone with the board
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: when they were changing the name. They won't let her
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  Speaker 4: speak so they can announce the next day it's a
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  Speaker 4: unanimous vote to change the name from Kennedy Senator to Trump.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: And she went to court four days later, four days
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: later with the help of democracy defenders and filed that lawsuit,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: that one, and filed two more actions to save that senator.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: So the reason people can protest is That center that's
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: called the Kennedy Center is still because of Joyce Beatty,
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: who's a remarkable woman. Second, look, as a comedian in
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: my past life, when I was a full-time comedian, I
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: performed at the Kennedy Center a few times. In fact,
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: I produced a show there three years ago as part
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: of the 20th anniversary of the New York American Comedy Festival.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: It was the biggest deal in the world, performing at
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  Speaker 4: the Kennedy Center. It said something special. It wasn't like,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: an improv comedy club. It was the Kennedy Center. I
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: think Trump wants that, where people go like, where are
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: you playing? Oh, the Kennedy Center. People are like, oh,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: it's comedians who perform. It's like, that's great. He'll never
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: get that. John Kennedy was a champion of the arts.
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  Speaker 4: He raised money. In 1962, they had a star-studded event
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  Speaker 4: on TV where you had people like Harry Belafonte and others.
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  Speaker 4: He raised money because he believed in the arts. Trump
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: believes in himself. He wants his name up there. So
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: it's a living legacy, and it's awful. Why he wants it?
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  Speaker 4: For him, for Donald Trump. That's it.
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  Speaker 1: Carter, the protesters who were out last night did not
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: mince words. And I want you to take a listen
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to some of what they said. To see him be
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: so petulant that he'll close it down if he can't
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  Speaker 1: put his name on a building, it's sickening. And it's
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  Speaker 1: a living memorial to JFK.
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  Speaker 3: And it's just morally wrong.
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  Speaker 5: He is so insecure and so puerile that he has
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  Speaker 5: to put his name on something that has nothing whatsoever
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  Speaker 5: to do with him.
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  Speaker 4: It belongs to the American people.
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  Speaker 6: It's owned by the government.
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  Speaker 4: It's ours, not his.
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  Speaker 6: We need to protect the idea that no president of
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: any party, of any viewpoint, of any mood, can just
• 5:05
  Speaker 6: tear down a building. So it makes you feel a
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: certain resolve to protecting and making things better.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I just want to say, you know, that protest came
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: together kind of last minute, and that guy just happened to,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I guess, have that outfit in his closet, which brings
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: me— No, no, you know.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: That's the guy who breaks that out at every opportunity.
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  Speaker 7: At every opportunity, fair enough.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: But, I mean, why do you think it resonates so
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: much with just everyday Americans who, you know, have other
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: things to do on a Friday evening, but instead stood
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: around the Kennedy Center to send a message to the president?
• 5:33
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I have to say I have no
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: personal connection to the Kennedy Center, unlike Lizzie. I don't
• 5:37
  Speaker 7: think I've ever even been there. But I think what
• 5:39
  Speaker 7: really strikes me about this story is it oftentimes feels
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  Speaker 7: like a microcosm of everything that has happened in Trump 2.0.
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  Speaker 7: I mean, it started off in part because of attacks
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  Speaker 7: on LGBTQ plus people, right? They were upset that the
• 5:50
  Speaker 7: Kennedy Center used to host drag brunches. They have appointed
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: people who seem to have little to no interest or
• 5:55
  Speaker 7: expertise in running an arts center that has been reported
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: many times that these people are potentially running the center
• 6:00
  Speaker 7: into the ground. And I think now we're looking at
• 6:04
  Speaker 7: the potential of lawlessness, right? A court has said that
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: the Trump administration cannot demolish this building without giving at
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: least 30 days notice. However, in a legal filing earlier
• 6:13
  Speaker 7: this week. a staffer at a law firm said that
• 6:16
  Speaker 7: she saw construction crews appearing to hurt the pillars of
• 6:19
  Speaker 7: the building. And so I think that is the thing
• 6:21
  Speaker 7: that we have to be looking at here is one
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  Speaker 7: of the questions that has constantly haunted this administration is,
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: are they obeying the rule of law? And is the
• 6:28
  Speaker 7: Kennedy Center now going to be another example of them
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  Speaker 7: shirking that duty, of them shirking the things that all
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: the rest of us are supposed to be abiding by?
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  Speaker 1: Jake, this is not the only thing that Trump is
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: trying to put his.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Touch, his.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm curious, you know, as much as people sometimes
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: laugh about, for example, all the gold that's in the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: White House right now. Do you think that at some
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: point there will be real political pressure on, say, a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Democrat running in 2028 to have a plan for like,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: what are they going to do about this new ballroom?
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  Speaker 1: Are you going to knock this massive thing down? What
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: are you going to do about the arc to Trump?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I think for their base, there will be
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  Speaker 1: a real question around that. And it's not a cheap one.
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  Speaker 6: No.
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  Speaker 8: And, you know, first you have if the Democrats take
• 7:11
  Speaker 8: the House in the midterms, the ability for some of
• 7:14
  Speaker 8: these funds to be impounded and like the need for
• 7:16
  Speaker 8: the administration from, you know, Trump's view to get as
• 7:19
  Speaker 8: much of this done as possible. And then on the
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: campaign trail, I could totally see a voter in New
• 7:24
  Speaker 8: Hampshire or in South Carolina asking a candidate, like, how
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  Speaker 8: quickly after being sworn in are you going to bulldoze
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  Speaker 8: these things? And it could become a real issue for
• 7:33
  Speaker 8: the base. I'm not really sure in terms of a
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  Speaker 8: general election issue, but people are going to care a
• 7:36
  Speaker 8: ton about this stuff. But, you know, it can become
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: one of those metrics of like, well, who's going to
• 7:42
  Speaker 8: be the fighter? The biggest the big buzzword among political
• 7:45
  Speaker 8: consultants of the past year. And, you know, one way
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  Speaker 8: to stake out that lane for yourself in the field
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  Speaker 8: might be to be the most aggressive in wanting to
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  Speaker 8: demolish or halt the construction around all these things.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One of the reasons I'm keeping an eye on that
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: is just that there's not really a scenario for people
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: who might want President Trump to, say, be held accountable
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: in a court of law. That's not really possible anymore.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's shielded and protected from that. And so
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: if you want some kind of physical proof that there
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: has been accountability for what you feel has happened over
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the course of the last several years, I wonder if
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: that'll be a big piece of it.
• 8:19
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