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BREAKING: Trump Threatens Kennedy Center Demolition If His Name Isn’t On It

37m 35s

BREAKING: Trump Threatens Kennedy Center Demolition If His Name Isn’t On It

The Kennedy Center crisis reflects a broader pattern of narcissistic and destructive behavior by Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed ownership and control over cultural institutions, asserting he alone can save them—only if his name is attached. Despite claims of structural danger, the building’s actual deterioration appears minimal, and the proposed demolition is driven more by Trump’s desire for personal recognition than public safety. The administration’s actions, including a visible poster board depicting rubble and a backhoe, underscore a disturbing fixation on symbolic destruction, echoing past behaviors like the unauthorized demolition of the East Wing. Legal challenges are mounting, with trustees and federal judges seeking to intervene, citing violations of fiduciary duties and public safety. The situation exemplifies a larger systemic failure: Trump’s unchecked power, combined with a lack of congressional oversight, risks undermining democratic institutions. While the immediate threat of physical demolition remains unproven, the narrative reveals a dangerous pattern of self-centered, destructive behavior. Critics argue this behavior is not only irrational but psychologically rooted in malignant narcissism, where failure to control a situation leads to its dismantling. A public protest—“Hands Around the Kennedy Center”—is expected to further highlight public resistance. Ultimately, the case serves as a symbolic battle between rule of law and unchecked presidential power, with legal and democratic institutions striving to contain a growing threat. Though the administration may attempt to act unilaterally, the presence of fiduciary duties and potential derivative litigation suggests that accountability may emerge, even if not immediately. This episode underscores the importance of congressional reassertion of power, as courts alone cannot fully check a president who operates outside constitutional norms.

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- Hello everybody, welcome to Bullwork Takes. We are here live in a sort of emergency capacity because there have been so many developments in this crazy story of the Kennedy Center. We've been covering it a lot, the Kennedy Center. Kind of starting to seem like the president is on the cusp of ripping the thing down. As crazy as that sounds, as crazy as that would be, every current-- - It's entirely predictable. - Is that that is what the Trump is. At least has his mind on in his sort of fantasy type moments. And as we all know, the president has had a habit of converting these fantasies into cold hard realities for us during this term. So let's just go through a couple of these clips here from the last couple of, but really from the last 12, 24 hours. Here is Donald Trump gaggling before getting on to Air Force One just last night. So for the Trump administration to be to get involved and to take that on road terms and to carry in order to raise money to carry in, I think that the Trump administration can certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close, it'll end up being ripped down. It's just very, very bad shape. - Yeah, and he had a true social post earlier this week where he said the Kennedy Center is in a virtual state of collapse where he said that he's the only one who can save this institution, but that he's not going to choose to do so, unless the judge makes the right decision about letting him put his name on the building and if the judge doesn't make that decision, then the building is destined to doom is the way that the president put it. And just to put one more very fine point on it, here is a picture that gaggle we played a second ago. That's as he's taking off for a rally in North Carolina last night. Here is a picture of him re-arriving back in DC. You get one of these sort of voyeuristic White House photographer shots through the window of the planes, why they pay these guys the big bucks. As you can see from that little snapshot, there was a second snapshot that gave us a little bit more. Yeah, there you go. Kennedy Center demolished is the words that's written on that board. It appears to be the picture that's there as well. It's some sort of mockup. You can see a backhoe is there. Basically, Donald Trump is surveying pictures of a pile of rubble where the Kennedy Center will have used to be from the time frame of this, this poster board. There's also some pictures of Bill Polty getting off of Air Force One with these later. So George, I gotta give you your flowers. You've been predicting this, right? I mean, this is where you have seen this as going, talk us through, talk us through where the president's head has been at with the Kennedy Center. The last few days. I mean, I said this after that first tweet, a couple of days ago, I said it's, and I'll read it. It's pretty obvious where this is headed. He's saying renovations are needed because the facility is unsafe. But the money for renovation, renovation, excuse me, isn't available unless his name goes on the building. The logical conclusion, Erdo, if his name doesn't go on the building and it's not renovated, it's gotta be demolished for the public safety. Okay, you could see where this is coming. He wants, you know, it's either, this is the malignant narcissism I like to keep talking about. I think I even talked about it the other day with Sam. He wants to control and manipulate and own and take credit for everything 'cause he's the only person important in the world to himself. And if he can't have that, then he has to destroy whatever it is. And that's what he, you know, this is the entirely predictable character trait of Donald Trump applied to this particular instance. Instance, he wants to, he, if he can't have it, if he can't put his name on it, he wants to destroy it. And that is an essential characteristic of somebody who is, as he is, a malignant narcissist, somebody who's a sociopath, somebody who is the ultimate narcissist. They have to do that. And that's, you know, I mean, people who have suffered abuse, women in particular, at the hands of a narcissist, a malignant narcissistic man, they know this, right? This is what they do, if they can't have the person, they wanna hurt them and they abuse them. And it's, again, it's what I said yesterday to Sam, Sam was there's this acronym Darvo, deny attack, reverse victim and offender. And what he's doing here is he's destroying the Kennedy Center because he's blaming the people who support the Kennedy Center for not putting his name on it. So therefore it has to be destroyed. And it's their fault. It's the judges fault. And by the way, one of the things that's happened in the last day or so is that the, you know, the people, this Congresswoman from I think Ohio, whose name escapes my mind right now, who is one of the remaining trustees over, you know, from the Kennedy Center, from the prior regime. - Yeah, Joy Speedy, you're talking about that. - Joy Speedy who brought suit to stop the renaming. They went into court last night saying, oh, we've got some, you know, we've got some, apparently there was somebody, some worker who said that they saw a forklift banging on some of the supports at the Kennedy Center. And so they're saying like, we want to know what's going on here. We, you know, they're suggesting that we want to have a hearing with you, Your Honors, to find out whether he, they're doing anything to do damage to the Kennedy Center, which would be in violation, apparently, of a prior court order. So there's a lot going on here. And that, that board, that board, that poster board, that Trump is looking at, like, do you have to have something that big to show to the President of the United States? Is he, that blind is a bad, is he that much of a moron that he needs a big picture with a captured, I mean, we've heard about his briefings, his security briefings where, you know, they have to show him pictures of himself with big letters to get his attention. You know, it's so bizarre. Do you really need, if you want to destroy the Kennedy Center and you want to demolish it? Do you need a big poster board to talk about it? - My favorite thing about this, this picture, and it's so surreal because I don't know if people can see on this particular, on their screens right now. He kind of looks like he's nodded off, like he's dozing, like he's snoozing the President's asleep. It's like it's been placed there as like a sleep aid for him, like something to sort of lull him into. - It's too, yeah, no, it's too, I think my thought, well, I think that's accurate. I mean, this goes back to my, my first thought is, I mean, one of the things that malignant narcissists do, okay, let's sick men like this do, is they fantasize about this coin thing. So this was, this is almost sexual to him, but of course, as we discussed with the Natalie Harp thing, that's probably not what's going on there. If there isn't enough Viagra in the world to help that situation. But for him, it's soothing to see the destruction of something that he can't own control or name after himself. It's soothing for him. Yes, so it probably does put him to sleep. It makes him feel better. I mean, this is psychologically sick. This is destruction porn. And this is the kind of thing. I mean, you know, it's kind of like, you know, the scene dictators in the past take videos of the people that they've executed, right? They get off on this. This is a very, very, very sick man. And this is, you know, I was telling someone the other day, you know, actually, but the tweet that you saw that I sent out was actually originally a text on a text chain. And one of my friends who is a very strong anti-Trump writer said, you know, we've got other things to be concerned about. And she's right, right? Whether or not a particular performing arts center survives, this era is less important than gas prices. It's less important than our democracy and the constitution and the rule of law. But it is the perfect encapsulation, the perfect description, the perfect illustration of this man's sickness. And the reason why it's important is, this is what he's going to do to the country. This is what he is doing to the country. Okay, this is what malignant narcissists who achieve power in nations due to their nations. And this is, you know, it's inherent in his psychological makeup that he will, you know, if he loses this election in the fall, right? And he starts, you know, he starts being investigated and he starts really losing control of MAGA and the government. This level, this kind of destruction, we're going to see in other ways. And you know who actually was, you know, you know, who actually was onto this in 2021. And it's funny to invoke his name now because now it's like, he looks like an, he looks like kind of an AI bot, but, you know, to be like the times, Mitch McConnell. On February 13, 2021, you'll remember that he gave a great speech, actually. On the floor of the Senate after the acquittal of Donald Trump on the insurrection charges after he had left office. He thought he was delivering his political eulogy. Right, right, right. Exactly right, partly what McConnell was doing was making the excuse for the acquittal. But the reason why he decided to go for the acquittal and urge other members to vote for the acquittal was he thought Trump was done, right? He thought Trump was done and why does his fingerprint have to be put on, why does his knife have to be in the guy's back and he's going away anyway? And one of the things that McConnell said that I thought was really, really insightful was what Donald, his perception of what Donald Trump had done on January 6th and leading up to January 6th. McConnell said something like, I don't remember the exact words, but basically the guy lost and then he tried to destroy, he tried to torch everything on the way out of town. That's this man. And if you think that just because he's become feeble and he needs Viagra, as I've said, and his skin is falling off and he can't walk a straight line and he slurs his words and he's becoming more and more incoherent and sounding stupider by the day, he's not dangerous. You're wrong. We can make fun of him and I will continue to make fun of him until my last dying breath. But he's dangerous and becoming more so because he's going to become more desperate and his essential character trait is that he is a malignant narcissist and he seeks to destroy that which he cannot control. His brain is geared for destruction and he's a man with a nuclear arsenal. Yeah. I mean, all this psychoanalysis, you're 100% spot on about it, but I feel like the thing that I struggle to communicate to people is you don't, for the Kennedy Center story in particular, you almost don't even have to make these. It's not just psychoanalysis that would lead you to assert these things because this is exactly what the people he has installed there have been saying all along. They have been explicitly changing the bylaws of the center itself and making the argument over and over again in court. Donald Trump needs credit for this institution. He needs to allow him to remake it in his image or he will not consent to, to, to, right, arguing it from the financial pit, which he created and dug it into. Right. That's right. And this is what they, his people are claiming it's not just George Conway, not just the bulwark. Right. And it's, you know, again, that's, that's another way of looking at the sickness. I mean, basically, he took something, made it financially, unviable, then says, oh, I'm going to be the one to come to the rescue of it because I'm such a good guy. And if we, the Trump administration, IE, me, don't get credit for it. Why should we do that? And if we don't do that, we're going to destroy the thing that we were trying to take over and support. I mean, that's Kuku. That is Kuku. It's sick. It is the sickness of this administration, and he's surrounded by people who are just as sick as he is. Poltie. But what the fuck is Poltie doing? All right. What is he? What? Why is it his job? You know, what, what, what, what is, what function does he serve other than, and we've seen this in connection with other things like the prosecutions, the illegal or stupid prosecutions of Tish James and James Comey and hunting around for mortgage documents on Adam Schiff and what not. This man is solely devoted himself to playing to the big man's malignant narcissism. And what has happened is this sickness has replicated in the first Trump administration, Trump was basically the one sick man. There were a couple of other people who were sick that would come in and out. But basically most of the other people, even if they were kind of weak or even if they were kind of compromised, they stood up to him in the end and they understood what they were dealing with. I mean, General Kelly, who I, you know, I have to appreciate this, General Kelly actually bought a book on Trump's mental illness and brought it into the White House, the West Wing and told people you got to read this so you can understand the boss. Okay. Now he's gotten rid of all those people, all those people who tried to contain him, all those people who tried to make him normal and to normalize him to the public. They won't, they don't come in because they know they can't do it. And he won't have them because if they push back on him, he'll, he'll get rid of them. So have is a bunch of people who just don't care, who don't give a shit, and are just spineless. And then you have a lot of sick people who want to wreak as much havoc and destruction as he does because they are sick too. Steven Miller is a sick man. Okay. I don't have any question about that having, you know, this man wants to destroy things. And so does this guy PULTY? These are bad people, sick people. And it's sort of like the metaphor I've used for Trump too is like every galaxy has a giant super, what's called a super massive black hole in the middle of it. And this super massive black hole is the reason why galaxies have this spiral thing because it exerts so much gravity, all the stars for 100,000 light years, rotate around this massive thing, which is like billions of suns in mass. And it also that sucks in more stars and sucks in more black holes. And that's the White House today. We've got this giant super massive orange black hole. And then all these other sick black holes surrounding it and creating more of a sport text of destruction. Anyway, that's my, yeah, you brought up, you brought up those political prosecutions a minute ago. I actually want to want to wrap back around to that in a minute here. And I also think there's, there's some more interesting stuff to chew on in terms of what's actually going on in court with the Kennedy Center today because it's just such a surreal spectacle. How about either of those things I should throw quick to an ad so I'll see you on the other side of that. This message is sponsored by Quince. You know those clothes in your closet that you find yourself wearing over and over again, like this pink shirt that I wear all the time, a sweater that goes with everything, a perfect pair of pants, or the tee that always comes right to the top of the drawer, those are the things that make getting dressed easy. And that's what Quince does best. I've been a quince shopper for a long time. I've bought gifts for people from Quince, I've bought a lot of stuff for myself from Quince, even bought things like baby clothes and baby blankets for Quince. 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If the world is on fire, I think less sweaters and more, you know, some of those-- That's a good question. That's a good question. That's a good point. Yeah. Okay. So there's a surreal split screen here that I want to talk about, because on the one hand, you have Trump openly talking and openly, almost like flaunting this idea that I'm going to raise the Kennedy Center, maybe I will, maybe I won't, but it's me who decides, and if I do it, stop me. Me, me, me. Yeah, and then at the exact same moment, we have the Trump administration and the Kennedy Center leadership under, you know, Chairman Donald Trump, who has appointed himself ahead of that board, but they are in court telling a judge, actually, all that's happening here is that we have closed this up on a temporary basis. This is what Charles Matthew Flaka, who's the executive director and chief operating officer of the Kennedy Center, told the court just today, I came to the conclusion that acute risks to public safety, resulting from continued structural deterioration at the center, necessitated a temporary closure of most public spaces in the main building of the center to general public access, and he calls it a temporary closure, which will last for seven days, unless extended. Of course, the president has said it's going to be closed for years and years, but here's this on the one side, and then on the other side, as you mentioned before, we've got representative Beatty, who continues to come back to the court with more and more declarations, where she's essentially just saying, "Excuse me, judge, I just wanted to to make sure you saw what the president said last night about tearing the place down. I wanted to make sure you happen to see that picture where he's had this poster board printed off of the smoking pile of rubble that the Kennedy Center used to be, like just bringing this to your attention, your honor, making sure you're abreast of it. And the whole thing is, it all also sits in the shadow of the fact that this guy knocked down the East Wing just a year ago before he'd asked anybody for permission to do that. So it's a different situation, but it's just so surreal, George. You almost wrap your head around it. - Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different things going on here. One is they're fading this stuff to judges that are essentially lies. And the question is, are the lawyers who are filing this shit on behalf of the government? Do they know the facts or if they're just being shut out of the facts? And from the standpoint of, if you're a federal judge, it almost doesn't matter because you basically learn that you cannot trust anything that this administration says. I mean, we saw this in connection with some of the immigration litigation last year where there was a guy, Ruvani, who basically said, they're basically lying to you in your honor. And we'll also see situations where the judge would issue an order, but nobody would transmit the frickin order to the people who had to obey it, like tell, say, hey, those planes with the, with the people going to El Salvador. El Salvador, those side of stop. And they would just like, no. They would say, take your time delivering the order to them. And some of that clearly is going on here. I mean, what that guy said in that declaration that you just showed is completely inconsistent with the poster board. And who gets, who's in charge here again? Who thinks he's in charge? Who did you say was the chairman of the Kennedy Center? - That'd be Donald Trump, yeah. - Oh, Donald Trump. - He's not only president, but he runs the center too. - And he's looking at, you know, his fantasy pictures of, you know, he's getting off or going to sleep or whatever we didn't decide what it was, looking at the destruction of the Kennedy Center. If I were a judge, I'd want to hold a hearing on this and try to figure out what's going on. But, you know, you can't, I don't know this, you're going to be able to get the president of the United States for a deposition. But anyway, that's what's going on here is judges are having to deal with this shit every day where they're basically, you know, they're being gasslet. Whether or not the people who are filing these papers or standing up to argue in the court, know all the facts or not. The truth is, is you cannot trust anything that this government says. And there's something called, and it's been written out a lot about by, by some of the legal commentators. They call it the presumption of regularity. The presumption of regularity is this thing. It's not really was an official presumption, but it was sort of like the practice that judges, you know, they get a representation from an assistant United States attorney or for somebody in the government, and you just assume they're not lying their ass off. Unlike, you know, maybe the somebody with this being cited by a criminal defense lawyer, it's like, well, maybe, you know, I mean, I want to trust them as much as we trust the government. And now judges are fleeing faced everywhere, with the problem of they cannot trust the representations being made on behalf of the United States of America. And so that's one thing that's going on here that makes it, you know, makes it hard on federal judges on the other hand, it kind of makes it easier because you know who the bad guys are. Okay, you know who the bad guys are 'cause they reveal themselves to be bad every, every fricking day. And it's partly it's like we saw a little bit about that in the postal, I'm sorry, I've been connecting too many things here, the postal regulation, the male ballots, mitigation where you've got Alito and Thomas in descent, pretending that the government is acting in good faith. When anybody with eyes and ears and any common sense knows that this is all an effort to fuck with the election. Okay, and this is what's going on in litigation and every day, and it's why, you know, it's why they keep losing in the district courts all the time and why they're even losing in the Supreme Court, even though the Supreme Court, you know, kind of waivers from time to time, it's delivered losses to the Trump administration. A lot of the major stuff that matters. So it's, it was another point I wanted to make about the litigation, but I've since forgotten it. So I'll-- - Well, you, before we went to the ad break, you had brought up some of those criminal prosecutions or attempted criminal prosecutions that the guys like Poltie were involved with. And I actually, I wanted to toss something at you because there's a weird sense in which there is one thing that I find almost reassuring about this story. And it's insane and it's, you know, infuriating and all these things that we have been saying. But like, when you think about the fact that this is the way that given his druthers, Donald Trump would be running the entire country right now, just completely by Fiat completely, you know, snatch his fingers. - Yes. - Like, and he's getting away with that way too much, way more than any of us would like. But there's also this weird like negative space where you can, you can look at what's happening here. You can look at what's happening with these building things. And you can look at the places where he has actually failed to do this in other extraordinarily important ways. And not as many, again, not as many as we would like, but when you look at the criminal prosecutions, when you look at the way that he tried to get the Alina Habas and the Lindsey Halligans of the world installed at all these U.S. attorney's offices and ultrasonic-- - National Guard, he lost a bunch at the end. - Yeah, yeah, and like many things. - So there is a sense and we talk all the time about all the stuff that is getting through, all the stuff he's getting away with, all the ways in which the guardrails are failing and absent in many places where we would much prefer them to be holding strong or present, right? But you can see here, you can remind yourself, wait a minute, in a different universe where there weren't as many guardrails. That El Salvador stuff you were talking about before, he would still be running that show, exactly the way he's gone in this show. Or going after Romeo, or going after Tish James, or any of these people, Trump's appetites so outstrip that things he has actually been able to do, that you can almost forget how bad those appetites were and almost forget that there in fact have been some very, very important restraints that we should be thankful for. - Yeah, no, we have to be thankful for all the people, like my friend Norm Eisen and the people that he works with at Democracy Defenders and the people at the Washington litigation group and all the other people who are litigating against Donald Trump because they have put a check on this guy through the courts. And it's, no, obviously it's not been perfect. Obviously there's a lot of bad, Trump has done a lot of damage to the government and a lot of damage to the rule of law and the constitution. But right now we're surviving because of brave federal judges and also some state judges here and there. And even the Supreme Court has done some things that are right, exemplified by the Postal Service decision. So it's a battle, but the real problem is you cannot, and this is a theme that I keep banging on now for the entirety of Trump too, is it's not up for the courts aren't able to do this, to check the president to the extent he needs to be checked. Because basically you cannot have six or 700 federal judges running the country with individual orders. Even one federal judge in connection with one department and one issue, is that person gonna micromanage everybody to make sure they are obeying the law, whether it be Steven Miller or somebody at the White House giving an order to the secretary of whatever and then the assistant secretary and the sub people and then the career people and then all the way down to, I don't know what's going on in a national park, it's impossible for a federal judge to control all that if those people aren't cooperating and aren't acting in good faith, which basically there are people at the top who are acting not in good faith. And then there are people underneath them who are basically even if they wanted to act in good faith, they wouldn't be allowed to because they lose their jobs or their pensions. And so the problem is that the check that has to occur on a corrupt, norm violating, constitution violating, oath violating, corrupt, narcissistic, sociopathic, evil president who does not give a fuck about his oath of office, his commitment to the rule of law, to the constitution and about the people ultimately and only cares about himself. The ultimate check is the Congress of the United States which has been basically AWOL. And that's why these elections this fall are, I mean, they always say who's the most important election over our life that we've been hearing that consistently for the last 10 years, this is really important because finally, it's one of the reasons why I ran for Congress. It was basic because this is it. This is where the battle is, Congress has to reassert its power to supervise, to investigate and to impeach and remove whether you're starting with the cabinet officials or starting at the top. One way or the other, Congress needs to reassert its power. It's not up to the courts. The courts have done an amazing job holding the fort, but they can't do everything and they can't stop the bleeding. Okay, they can keep the patient alive but they can't fully stop the bleeding. congress has to do it. Yeah, yeah. No, I think honestly I think that's about as good a place to stop as any. The one other thing that I should say is we are going to keep seeing ongoing litigation about this. I mean, this is I mentioned the the competing motions right now. Joyce BD wants to have the judge hold an emergency hearing on this, all that stuff that we were mentioning from the from the Kennedy Center officers. That was basically all in service of saying, "Judge, there's nothing to see here. You need not look too closely at any of these poster boards or tweets or presidential comments or anything like this. I guess one other thing I would ask you at George and this gets to what you were saying a minute ago. Is there say Donald Trump tomorrow? He sends a crew down there say he drives say he drives a big a big a backhoe down there himself and just starts knocking out beans at the Kennedy Center. I'm sure he do a great job driving. Yeah, yeah, he like like when he got behind the wheel. It's like everything's computer. I don't think he has a driver's license actually. He doesn't drive personally. But okay, say it happens. He drives a big a car tomorrow. What's that? The golf court. I think I don't you don't have to be licensed. I don't think. All right. Yeah, there's a little there are there are degrees of difference between that and the Tesla and the sedan and the and the back. Oh, but anyway, and a pack. Oh, we got tomorrow and the Kennedy Center is a hole in the ground. I'm not saying that's going to happen. But if we did, what would recourse look like? Would anything change for the president? Well, there would be any kind of accountability ever at any level. Look, I think I think that every time he pushes something crazy, he loses people. Okay, and he's losing them bit by bit by bit. And the Kennedy Center is so fucking pointless. The destruction of the Kennedy Center is so fucking mindless, so pointless, so you know, for what? It says, you know, it wasn't harm me anybody. It was you may not, you know, there are a lot of people out there who will never go to the Kennedy Center. They can't afford the tickets or they're not really cultured enough to go. But it's like, why are you destroying? It's a pretty building. Yeah, probably need some renovations. I don't think that shit that they're saying is structural is really structural. Okay, it's just like, you know, and Congress, by the way, Congress apparently, I think appropriated a quarter of a billion dollars for the upkeep of the Kennedy Center in the last year or so. Where did that money go? By the way, I don't know. But anyway, so let's set that aside. The Kennedy Center, it's so pointless that people are scratching their heads. It's like, okay, but you've got this war. You fucked that up. You've got these tariffs. You know, you want it. You're threatening now to cut off all trade with Europe because Europe is getting friendly with Canada. Like, what are you doing? How is this helping any of us? Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, he's compounding his own problems in the fall elections. And I think this is, again, you know, as my friend, unnamed friend said, it's, you know, we've got a lot of other things to worry about, for example, this war, this tariffs, the rule of law, the Constitution. But this is kind of, it's easy to see that this is just absolutely pointless, narcissistic destruction for its own sake. You know, it hasn't been full physical destruction yet. It's just been merely defacing and basically destroying the economic viability of the Kennedy Center. But, you know, he does want to physically destroy it. And I would not be surprised if the bulldozers come out in the middle of the night. That being said, I have no doubt that there should be, that the court's going to stop it. Because he's got, he's got no right to, you know, that one of the things that I can't get, I won't get into the whole corporate non-profit law, see, but people, someone like that congresswoman has the right to sue on, potentially on the Kennedy Center's behalf, because she has fiduciary duties. She has an interest in the well-being of the Kennedy Center. And the people who are allowing it to be destroyed are, you know, the other members of the board, including Donald Trump are violating, they have fiduciary duties. They have obligations to the Kennedy Center as a matter of corporate law. And one of the things I think that could happen here that would, you know, even if Trump tries to disobey a court order, which I don't, I don't know that he will do, but someday I think he's going to do it. One of the things that somebody could, in that congresswoman's position, might be able to do, and I wonder if the lawyers have thought about it and I haven't done the legal research on it. But I would, you know, one of the things that you can do, it's called a derivative action, somebody who has standing like a shareholder of Intel or a member of the board in this case of a non-profit, they can bring claims on behalf of the entity that they have duties to against third parties who are harming the entity that they have duties to. Now, there's a, there's, there's judicial review, the make sure that that doesn't get abused. But I think one of the things, and I could be wrong here, but one of the things that I would do, if I were lawyering on behalf of the Kennedy Center and behalf of Representative Beatty, is, or did you say the name was Beatty? Yeah. Beatty, yeah, is basically say, you know, whoever pulls a bulldozer or, you know, any gets involved in the demolition, all you private contractors out there who are thinking of taking the money from the Trump administration to destroy the Kennedy Center, the way you did the East Wing, we're going to sue the fuck out of you. And you're going to be held liable. And guess what? Donald Trump doesn't pay his bills, you know, you can get an indemnity from Donald Trump, but you can't trust it. And I think that might be the way to ultimately make sure that nothing bad happens to the Kennedy Center is to basically say, we will sue your asses off if you so much as move a brick. Anyway, that's, yeah, another aside year. Yeah, well, no, I mean, I, I, I do think that's, that's an interesting and an important note to, to sort of end on because we're going to keep following this story. Obviously, it is interesting on its own merits. It's such a surreal. Not for one more thing. One more thing is tomorrow, apparently, I've heard that there's going to be a protest at the Kennedy Center. It's called, it's going to be called like hands around the Kennedy Center. So people are going to encircle, I think they're going to encircle the Kennedy Center and hold their hands and say, don't touch it. So that should be interesting. I think, I think, I think the bulwark should send a rowing reporter there. I think that's the plan. Yeah, I think we're going to end down there. Cool. Our, our fearless gonzo streets of DC guy. Don't call me on that. That's just my understanding. But, but yeah, it's, it's interesting on its own, on its own merits, but it's also like such a, as you keep saying, such a metaphor for everything. It's like this. It's like ritual single combat in this case, in this court case, between the courts and the rule of law and the repacious all in 100 supermassive black hole will of Donald Trump. So, George, thank you. Thank you for coming on to, to talk about all this stuff, to pop off about all of this stuff. Thank you all out there as well for watching. We hope that you will subscribe to the channel. Please do actually subscribe to the channel. We cannot tell you how much you wouldn't think it would help all that much just from clicking that one button. But really, it is the lifeblood of the YouTube channel is just you guys going and clicking that one in mass. So we can keep, keep clicking and I will keep popping off. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Thank you all out there and thank you, George. We will see everybody next time. Bye.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed plans to demolish the Kennedy Center, citing structural collapse and claiming he is the only one who can save it, while insisting his name must be on the building for any renovation to occur.
  2. The administration’s actions—including public displays of a mock-up poster showing rubble and a backhoe—reveal a pattern of narcissistic control, where destruction is framed as a psychological release rather than a practical or legal action.
  3. Legal and institutional resistance, including a court-backed temporary closure and a lawsuit by Kennedy Center trustee Joy Speedy, highlights the conflict between Trump's ambitions and the center’s fiduciary obligations, with concerns over potential derivative litigation to halt demolition.

Summary:

The Kennedy Center crisis reflects a broader pattern of narcissistic and destructive behavior by Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed ownership and control over cultural institutions, asserting he alone can save them—only if his name is attached. Despite claims of structural danger, the building’s actual deterioration appears minimal, and the proposed demolition is driven more by Trump’s desire for personal recognition than public safety. The administration’s actions, including a visible poster board depicting rubble and a backhoe, underscore a disturbing fixation on symbolic destruction, echoing past behaviors like the unauthorized demolition of the East Wing.

Legal challenges are mounting, with trustees and federal judges seeking to intervene, citing violations of fiduciary duties and public safety. The situation exemplifies a larger systemic failure: Trump’s unchecked power, combined with a lack of congressional oversight, risks undermining democratic institutions. While the immediate threat of physical demolition remains unproven, the narrative reveals a dangerous pattern of self-centered, destructive behavior.

Critics argue this behavior is not only irrational but psychologically rooted in malignant narcissism, where failure to control a situation leads to its dismantling. A public protest—“Hands Around the Kennedy Center”—is expected to further highlight public resistance. Ultimately, the case serves as a symbolic battle between rule of law and unchecked presidential power, with legal and democratic institutions striving to contain a growing threat.

Though the administration may attempt to act unilaterally, the presence of fiduciary duties and potential derivative litigation suggests that accountability may emerge, even if not immediately. This episode underscores the importance of congressional reassertion of power, as courts alone cannot fully check a president who operates outside constitutional norms.

FAQs

Donald Trump has claimed the Kennedy Center is in a 'virtual state of collapse' and stated he is the only one who can save it, but only if he can put his name on the building. He has expressed that if the judge does not allow this, the center will be destroyed.

Yes, Trump has shown support for demolition through a poster board featuring a pile of rubble and a backhoe, which he reportedly viewed while traveling. He has also said the center is in danger and that it may be torn down unless renovated.

Yes, a legal fight is currently underway, with the center’s board and a congresswoman, Joyce Beatty, filing motions to have a court hearing. They argue that structural damage and unsafe conditions require immediate action and raise concerns about the administration’s actions.

The poster board is seen as a symbolic representation of Trump’s fantasy of destroying the Kennedy Center. It reflects a pattern of using imagery to justify destruction, suggesting a psychological need to control or own something he cannot directly access.

Yes, the center’s board members, including representatives like Joyce Beatty, have fiduciary duties to protect the institution. They can file derivative lawsuits to hold individuals accountable if they take actions to destroy the center.

A derivative action allows a board member or representative to sue on behalf of the Kennedy Center if someone is harming it. Such a claim could hold contractors or the Trump administration liable for any demolition efforts.

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