OMG: Trump drops INSANE announcement about Kennedy Center

We have some breaking news right here. that shows the depths that Donald Trump. will go to to protect his own ego. I'm. going to put some reporting on the. screen right here. According to CNN, the. Trump administration is threatening to. demolish the Kennedy Center if. renovations aren't allowed. The lead-in. paragraph says, "Kennedy Center may need. to be demolished and replaced with an. open-air performance space if its. current building cannot undergo. extensive renovations, lawyers for the. venue said in court papers on Monday.". I'm now joined by Norm Eisen, who is the. founder of Democracy Defenders Fund. You.

have been litigating against Donald. Trump's efforts to rename the Kennedy. Center. after himself. Norm, can I have your. reaction first and foremost to this new. news that if Donald Trump can't get his. precious name etched onto the building. that he's going to do the the the adult. temper tantrum version of taking his. ball and going home and instead just. demolishing it? >> YOU LITERALLY READ MY MIND. I WAS GOING. to say it's like the kid who doesn't. WANT TO PLAY BY THE RULES, I'M TAKING MY.

BALL AND GOING HOME. >> YEAH. >> This is. an example, Brian, of why. Donald Trump is so corrupt and he's lost. in court. so often and he's lost in the court of. public opinion where he has historically. low unpopularity. ratings approaching only Nixon at the. depths of his corruption crises.

There is no need to destroy the Kennedy. Center. The whole point of this legal fight is. Donald Trump can't put his name ON IT. SO NOW, BECAUSE THE COURT HAS SAID YOUR. NAME HAS TO COME OFF, HE SAYS, "I'M. GOING TO DESTROY THE WHOLE THING.". Everybody. sees through this. It's corrupt to use. government resources in this fashion to. destroy a building in a fit of pique.

Um, it's going to cost the American. taxpayers money. The court will not. allow him to do it. We will stop. destruction of the Kennedy Center in. court uh, if he dares to try it. I think. it is just a red flag. You know, he. wants. he wants TO GET EVERYBODY ALL WOUND UP. SO, we you know, we need to. um, we need to call it out and uh, as.

Barack Obama used to say, judo flip. This is why Donald Trump is hated. It's. a sick joke and we won't allow it to. happen. Don't worry, folks. With the. Kennedy Center is not going to be. demolished. It's going to be repaired. It can be repaired while being left. open. We've done that before. It is not. the Is that They just had a movie. premiere a couple MONTHS AGO FOR. MELANIA'S movie in there. It was a the.

Kennedy Center Honors. The the thing is is. it's not a dilapidated wreck. It needs. repairs. It's going to get the repairs. We're in court. We got this and I don't. think the judge uh, will permit the. demolition of the Kennedy Center. >> Norm, can you speak about the status of. the lawsuit against Donald Trump's kind. of second iteration of this attack, which is okay, I can't plaster my name. onto the building by renaming it the.

Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy. uh, um, uh, memorial performance center, but but he did want to kind of take. credit by etching his name into the. building for renovating the space. Can. you speak about the status of that. lawsuit? >> For heaven's sake. We won the lawsuit. I. argued the naming issue myself. It Congress has said it can be named the. Kennedy Center. and the Kennedy Center only. The.

statutes are very clear. IT'S IT'S NOT. ONE LAW. It's a whole section of the. United States Code and they all the. statutes make clear that's how it's got. to be. And now he's coming back. He. says, "Oh, essentially here's what he's. saying, Brian. Oh, no, Judge. You just. said my name can't go. bef- before on top of John F. Kennedy's. on THE BUILDING. SO, I'LL PUT IT BELOW. John F. Kennedy's name twice." No, it.

doesn't work that way. You can't uh. rearrange. It's not like Scrabble where. you move the tiles around. You can't put. your name on the building, Donald. We've. stopped it. We're going to stop it. again. Our client, Congresswoman Joyce. Beatty, uh has been very brave in. speaking out about this. She's been. bold. Democracy Defenders and our. co-counsel, Nathaniel Zelinsky and the. wonderful folks at the Washington. Litigation Group, are fighting this.

We're going to be back in court again. this week. And, you know, uh this is. truly It's like the It reminds me uh. you know, of a a toddler who wants to. hurt his parents, so he he beats his own. head against the wall. I mean, uh it's so ridiculous. It's so juvenile. You you You just have to laugh. If he. weren't wasting taxpayer dollars ON THE.

LITIGATION, WHY DOESN'T HE GET BACK, BRIAN? WHY DOESN'T HE GET BACK TO. reducing costs for Americans, to having. a competent government, uh. to um the things he said he would do? Instead, gas is more expensive, health. care is more expensive, there's a. housing affordability crisis, and he's. having tantrums about putting his name. on the Kennedy Center and demolishing. it. Maybe it's a fantasy because, you.

know, uh he's demolished the East Wing. Wing, he's building that hideous ballroom. Uh. but we're litigating there, we're. litigating here, and here we won. And his name's not going on the. building, and he's not going to demolish. it. >> Well, you know, two things on that. point. One, in a way, he's giving an. interesting playbook to Democrats who, I. don't know, may or may not want to. rename the Donald J. Trump Ballroom the.

second he leaves office. So, if Donald. Trump is proving himself uh to be, you. know, the the the person who establishes. precedent for renaming structures that. were otherwise named by previous. presidents, I am so excited to hear what. he thinks about the subsequent. Democratic president renaming his. precious ballroom. Uh I assume he'll be. in full favor of it given the fact that. he is falling over himself to rename uh. John F. Kennedy's uh um. uh structure. >> I think we should save the money, save.

the money from demolishing the Kennedy. Center, put it in escrow, and use it to. tear down that hideous ballroom. >> 100%. So, the second point I wanted to. make though is that when Donald Trump. has has a desire to do something, he's. showing that it'll stop at nothing to do. it. Like, we are on month, I don't know. I don't know what of this saga to try. and get his name on the Kennedy Center. So, when it's something that's his. priority, he stops at nothing to get it. done. He won't let the court stop him, he won't let prosecutors, he won't let.

judges, he won't let attorneys, he won't. other let other branches of government. >> stopped him. hundreds of times. Look at Look at the. Democracy Defenders. We have over 300. legal cases and matters. Birthright. citizenship, we stopped him. The firing. of Dr. Lisa Cook, we won that in the. United States Supreme Court. His 1.7. billion dollar slush fund is was an. endowment for insurrectionists. 35.

federal judges went to court, we. represented them, we stopped that. The. The Kennedy Center naming has been. stopped, it's going to be stopped again. It's like all the other cases, they said. oh, the reflecting pool, we got that. case thrown out. Uh he's pushing the. Paramount Warner's merger. So, we got. that case, uh supported the AGs in. getting that case. They said WE'RE GOING. TO CLOSE the merger. No, they've got to. wait for a year and on and on and on. He. doesn't get everything he wants.

>> But I I think the the point that I want. to make on on that is that when. something is his priority, he'll stop at. nothing to try and see it through. Which. goes to show that when he doesn't do. something, when he doesn't lower costs, when he doesn't release the Epstein. files, when he doesn't bring gas prices. down, when he doesn't end foreign wars. in the Middle East, it's not because he. can't, it's because he doesn't care. Because when he does care, he's. broadcasting the lengths that he'll go. to to get those things done. So, when.

people are hurting in this country, it's. only because Donald Trump doesn't have. any care in the world to actually lift a. finger to help you. >> He should be focusing all of this energy. on helping people with the cost of. living crisis, the competence driven by. incompetence and a corruption and a. chaos crisis. Instead, he's bogged us down with. a. can't win war morass in Iran, driven gas.

prices up, cost hundreds of Americans. lives or casualties. Um he's um, driving prices up with his. nutty tariffs like Canada, you know, these huge tariffs going to. make life more expensive for Americans. He's alienated our allies. He's a mess. at home with these corrupt vanity. projects all over DC, squandering the. money that should be helping the.

American people. And it's so. counterproductive because it it Every. time he does this, Brian, he just. deepens the hatred that the American. people have for him. Record low. popularity for an American president uh, approaching Nixonian modern American. president uh, approaching Nixonian lows. Uh, it it's it's uh, self-destructive. >> Yeah. >> Uh, he's helping nobody including. himself by threatening to destroy the.

Kennedy Center. Absurd. >> Yeah, putting on full display what his. priorities actually are. Norm, as. always, um, I want to promote the. Democracy Defenders Fund, uh, which has. been doing invaluable work with. countless lawsuits across the country to. make sure that this administration is. held to account for what they're doing. Um, so that link for those who are. looking to support that work is right. here on the screen and also in the post. description of this video. The indefatigable Norm Eisen, thanks for. taking the time today and uh, thank you. as always for the work that you continue.

to do. >> Brian, I'm going to get off our visit. and I'm going to file our brief just. like birthright citizenship. Remember. the Supreme Court said on a procedural. issue, rejected the first birthright case we. brought, the second birthright case and. we won. We're about to bring a case with. wonderful partners where on this USPS. executive order. We're going to go to. court and we're going to win including. uh, working side by side.

uh, with others in parallel state AGs, our friend Mark Elias and many others. So, I'm going to go get back to it. Maybe you'll have me on next time to. talk about how that case is going. >> Done deal. Norm, as always, thanks so. much. >> Thanks, Brian. >> [music].