Trump BANNED FOR LIFE from KENNEDY CENTER Tonight: "NEVER COME BACK!"

We begin tonight with a major problem that could cost Donald Trump and the Republicans the midterm elections. At the Kennedy Center, the traditional New Year's Eve concert has been canceled. As you know, the administration unilaterally

renamed the Kennedy Center to include Donald Trump's name, a move that lawmakers say was patently illegal. And some musicians have taken the president's actions to heart, refusing to perform at the storied venue. For some, it is a matter

of principle over profit. As one musician put it,

quote,

"'Losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.'" Self-indulgent vanity projects, though, have preoccupied this president

in his second term, and the Kennedy Center is merely the latest example of the president's edifice complex. His obsession with the trappings of autocratic grandeur extends to various White House projects,

ranging from the mundane, like gilding the Oval Office and remodeling the Lincoln bathroom and marble, to the absolutely outrageous, like paving over the Rose Garden and demolishing the East Wing to make way for a $400 million ballroom.

And the president's DIY tendencies haven't been confined to the White House. Trump has festooned multiple government buildings with enormous banners bearing the image of his own face. And in his free time, Trump golfs or attends lavish parties at his Florida beach club Mar-a-Lago. And that tone deaf behavior is setting off alarm bells. Take a listen.

His obsession with those kinds of issues actually are a political problem for him. I mean, people are sitting around and thinking about how they're going to pay their bills. And he seems obsessed with gold and putting his name on things and remodeling buildings and rebuilding monuments to himself. And I think this is a huge political problem for him. It's a symbol of his distraction. It's the Marie Antoinette thing that he's got going.

He's not on the ballot in next November, but Republicans should be really concerned about what they're seeing.

And Republicans are concerned. Some are still upset about the president's unwillingness to negotiate with Democrats during the government shutdown. And as all of this percolates, there is more potentially damaging information from the Epstein files that is coming out regularly.

And many Republicans are distancing themselves from the president ahead of the midterms, while others are leaving Congress entirely, most notably Marjorie Taylor Greene. Once a stalwart Trump ally, Greene now says she was, quote, naïve for believing

in the president's promises. Those kinds of schisms seem likely to widen as Trump continues to ignore serious domestic issues and as the midterms draw closer. As The Atlantic puts it, quote, Trump is suddenly looking a lot smaller.

This is Steve Lynch from the 8th Congressional District of Massachusetts. And this was originally gonna be a holiday message to my constituents, my people today, but then Trump changed the name of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. And even though we all have a lot of things

to worry about today, just as an Irish Catholic from Boston, I just can't let this one go. Just to remind people, especially my younger constituents, my younger friends, a couple of things about John F. Kennedy. JFK was a decorated Navy war veteran.

He served in the South Pacific theater during World War II at a time when our democracy itself hung in the balance. The Kennedys were a Goldstar family. Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, United States Navy, was killed when his plane went down over England in 1944. But JFK, as the commanding officer of the PT-109 a patrol torpedo boat. He received the Purple Heart

and the Navy and Marine Corps medals for valor after his vessel was struck by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands, and he had to risk his own life to rescue his crewmates. I believe he's the only US president to ever have received the Purple Heart

in our nation's history. As a candidate for the presidency, JFK had to overcome blatant bigotry because he was a Catholic, but his victory as our youngest president inspired us all with optimism while his vision actually launched our national mission into space at the time and made us, I think, as Americans, reimagine what was possible. During his presidency, JFK actually stood up for democracy around the globe.

And he faced down the Russians with the policy of containment, and he forced them to abandon their strategy to actually place missiles in Cuba. In the meantime, ironically, Jacqueline Kennedy, our first lady, created the White House Historical Society back in 1961, whose purpose was to restore the White House and its furnishings to its original beauty

and its historical integrity in a way that paid respect to all the earlier presidents regardless of their party. in a way that paid respect to all the earlier presidents, regardless of their party. And after JFK was brutally assassinated, President Lyndon Johnson and the United States Congress, where I serve,

dedicated the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as the only dedicated national memorial in Washington, DC, to acknowledge his service and his sacrifice to our country. So given all of that let me just speak plainly. Donald Trump's actions to have his name placed above John F. Kennedy's on the Center for the Performing Arts is a case of stolen valor plain and simple. While Trump and

his minions have no limit to the depth to which they will stoop, we as Americans should see this for what it is. It is something that is deeply shameful. This is not right. Trump is trying to steal an honor

for what he is not deserving. And in his attempt, he proves his unworthiness. I'm actually embarrassed for him. And what is most regrettable is that Trump and his handpicked board members have enabled him to drag down the memory

of someone who sacrificed everything, everything for our country. It is both immoral and illegal. So this week I reached out to our friends at Democracy Forward, God bless them, and other pro-democracy groups to bring legal action to restore the original legislative intent of Congress. I've also invited my colleagues in the House and

Senate to support my resolution to remove Trump's name from the Center for the Performing Arts. And also to call upon those board members who supported this innocuous decision to resign

immediately.

I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Thank you all. There's still a budget waiting to be balanced here, Senator, I mean, Congressman, if you ever want to come back. You know, there's been Abigail Spanberger, Mikey Sherrill. There was just a mayor elected in Miami, the first Democrat in 28 years. These are all good signs for the midterms. And I think some of the issues that you mentioned, Melissa, are ones that everybody understands that he just, he treats the White House like he owns it.

At the very least, he owns it. Or he bought it to renovate it, and he's making excuses about the West Wing. Well, the law says you need to have permission to build, but it didn't say anything about tearing it down. I mean, these excuses to—when you go past it, Melissa, it's just shocking to see. And you brought up the Kennedy Center.

He said he was, quote, surprised and honored by having the center named after him. After he filled the board with, fired everybody, filled the board with his cronies, and then had a vote. And by the way, it took minutes to get those letters up on the Kennedy Center. And so now it's the Trump and Kennedy. It is it's kind of astonishing. And the Oval Office, of course, looks like he's decorating that

like in an Atlantic City casino and then putting his predecessor's pictures on the wall with plaques underneath, insulting each of them, except for Ronald Reagan. It is, it's kind of astounding, and I think people, it does penetrate in a way sometimes that the cost of living index doesn't.

Well, so, Governor, the behavior is certainly outrageous, as Margaret has detailed. Are the Republicans going to pay a price for the president's behavior? Are they courting a midterm shellacking like the one the Democrats experienced in 2010?

Yeah, I've been saying for quite a while, not just the last couple weeks, and Margaret was saying this as well, I thought the Democrats were going to win the House a long time ago. Now, you know, when you take a look at these two ladies

who won the governor's races, they were talking about affordability. They were not on fringe issues. The Democrats have a challenge, and that is to stick on things like healthcare, like the economy,

but don't be getting on these fringe issues. They can talk about ICE and the fact that ICE has been too aggressive. I think that resonates with people. But if they go start drifting into the fringe issues, they're going to have a problem. For the Republicans, you know, they're sort of stuck with this MAGA thing.

And I've been a Republican all of my life, an American first, a Republican second. But I have to tell you, I don't quite know what it's all about. I don't know what what's the positive message there. It seems as though it's a message about tearing things down rather than building things up. And that is never a successful way to get elected, to be just so negative and everything. So I think the Democrats are going to win the House, maybe by a significant margin,

but New Year's. I think Trump is realizing that the Kennedy Center is never going to allow him in at least on the standards that he's been invited before. I mean, they can't even run events now. Like events are being canceled. I don't know if every event, literally every event has been canceled, but you see it, right?

Like he like the thing was people were willing begrudgingly to tolerate Trump's influence on the center. When he got elected again, the way it works is that ultimately it's, it's, it's overseen by congressional law, but the president has a lot of like day to day authority in terms of who he puts on the board and decisions about shows and blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah. It is what it is. People were willing to separate Trump from the center

because they still wanted to play at a prestigious arena and they still, you know, wanted to honor the Kennedy family even if they didn't want to honor Donald Trump or they wanted to honor the office of the president, even if not the guy whose bum is currently in the seat.

Right.

But when Donald Trump did what he did, he made separation impossible from both a literal and optical perspective, right? By putting his name on the building, a building that was named specifically for a president who was killed serving his country, killed in action. Throwing your name up there where one, it's a memorial place. Usually you have to be dead for one of those, even if we did like Trump, right? Right. Because no one's, it's going to be like the people under Jim Crow. All those people because remember, most

white people didn't support Martin Luther King's vision when it started, especially in the south, but even even in other places. And yet 3040 years later, almost everyone thought we said, well, I always supported Martin Luther King. Right? I never I much the same all the people who are MAGA now will want to scrub Right? I never I much the same all the people who are MAGA now will want to scrub

his legacy off the buildings and off their own brains.