How Low Will the Mobster-in-Chief Go?
DSR's Words Matter
David Rothkopf and Norm Ornstein dissect Donald Trump's controversial actions targeting the Kennedy Center, criticizing his narcissistic desire to rename it after himself despite its status as a memorial
Key takeaways
- Trump's obsession with renaming the Kennedy Center reflects a deeper narcissism that undermines national monuments and historical memory.
- The Republican Congress remains silent on Trump's attacks on cultural institutions, enabling his authoritarian behavior.
Main topics
- Trump's narcissistic control over national symbols
- Destruction of cultural heritage in Washington D.C.
Notable quotes
"He wants to go to the Lincoln Memorial and say, I want it to be the Trump Memorial."
"It's like a foreign occupying force doing this... we would declare war if they were associated with a foreign government."
Conclusion
Trump's actions represent a systemic assault on American democracy, cu
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:04) 9, 12, 10, 28, 2, 3. Speaker 3 (0:17) This is Deep State Radio, coming to you direct from our super-secret studio in the third sub-basement of the Ministry of SNARK in Washington, D.C., and from other undisclosed locations across America and around the world. Hello, and welcome to the DSR Network's Words Matter. I am David Rothkopf, your host, the guy who sits in the background and asks questions to provoke the guy you've really shown up here to hear. Norm Ornstein, the man who has figured out Washington when it is baffling to all the rest of us. How are you doing, Norm? Speaker 2 (0:56) Well, I'm a little upset today, David, because if you don't put my name at the front of DSR Network, I'm going to have to shut down the whole thing. Speaker 3 (1:07) You know, Norm, you're learning from the best. You're learning from the great one. And as it happens, because you and I are so carefully attuned, undoubtedly due to something that happened with a bowl of borscht and a shtetl a thousand years ago. Speaker 3 (1:27) I want to talk about the Kennedy Center. But I want to tell you something. Maybe you can help me. Donald Trump's shutting down of the Kennedy Center because he can't put his name on it, because he doesn't control it, because it's a memorial set up by the Congress. Speaker 3 (1:50) is so appalling to me. And, you know, this is a guy who's starting wars, killing people, killing people with epidemics, taking their health care away, destroying our democracy. There's a lot to hate Donald Trump about. But there's something about his petulance, his pettiness, his narcissism, his vile behavior with regard to the Kennedy Center. It's like he wanted to go to the Washington Monument and say, no, I want it to be called the Trump Monument. Or he wanted to go to the Lincoln Memorial and say, I want it to be the Trump Memorial. Or he wanted to go to every grave at Arlington National Cemetery that contains the remains of somebody who won the Medal of Honor and say, no, I want to add Trump there because he wants to steal valor. steal glory because he knows he's not getting it on its own. Because this is a memorial. It's not just an arts center. It's a memorial to a slain president chosen to be built by the Congress, by the people of the United States. And what he's doing is it's all about him in the worst way. And it's really triggered me, Norm. And I just don't understand why this is getting to me so much compared to everything else. Speaker 2 (3:14) I'm with you on this. And I am slowly beginning to think that he is a narcissist. But let me first do an additional condemnation of one of his cabinet members, the nephew of John F. Kennedy, our slain president for whom the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was created, who has said nothing. about this desecration, who just a few days ago at this midterm convention, which was basically just another please praise me event by Donald Trump, Kennedy gushed in praise saying that Trump was brilliant and nice and warm and empathetic and has said nothing about this outrage. Now, I can go back. to something that we discussed many months ago, many months ago, when Trump coming in as president first announced that he was firing the board, firing the president, taking over the Kennedy Center. And the leadership of the Kennedy Center, the president, the general counsel, and the board, all just unilaterally caved on this. And I wrote a piece saying, this is ridiculous. You have a strong case that he cannot do this, that it is unlawful for him to do this. But they triggered all of this, which could lead to the absolute destruction of one of the signature monuments and cultural centers in our country, and certainly in the city where we reside and work. And that he is doing this petulance after already having a judge, one, tell him, no, your name can't be there. And when they took the name down, he insisted they put up a scaffolding so that if you can't see my name, you're not going to see John F. Kennedy's name. That scaffolding's still there. And then threatening to pull down the building because its fundraising collapsed when he took over and basically destroyed its cultural heritage and is refusing to spend money, a good portion of which was donated by philanthropists. and others to do a needed renovation of this body. And that he's getting away with it, including basically ignoring what judges have said, is emblematic not just of who Donald Trump is and who the people around him are. And who represents him on this cabinet? But the failure of the Republican Congress, of the lickspittles he put on this board to do anything about it. And let's note that he called into the meeting of the board yesterday and absolutely vilified Congresswoman Beatty, who is an ex-official member of the board. who at first they tried to keep from voting and keep from even being in on the meetings. And Joyce Beatty had to take this shit from this narcissistic, malignant psychopath who happens to be the president of the United States. Is that good enough for you? It's a start. It's a Speaker 3 (7:00) start. Speaker 2 (7:01) The reality is Speaker 3 (7:02) there is still a possibility he'll tear the building down. Oh, yeah. And you and I both know, a lot of people don't know this, that prior to Trump coming into office, they had just spent a couple hundred million dollars renovating the building. You know, when he says it was all run down, that's complete bullshit. And when he says without him, they can't raise money, as you say, that's complete bullshit. When he associated himself with the building is when it stopped being able to raise money. But now he may tear it down. And now. You know, there is a Washington Post story that just popped up as we are beginning our podcast that they are going ahead with putting up signs in front of the Smithsonian Institution saying that the exhibits within the institution contain political bias and may not be accurate. Why? Because they talk about things like slavery. They talk about things like... genocide against the Indians. They talk about the things that really happened in American history. But when you look at this, you look at what he's doing at the Kennedy Center, what he's doing at the Smithsonian, what he's doing at the White House, where he literally, I mean, if you saw the drone shots earlier in the week, he is building in addition to the White House. that is going to tower over the White House, dominate the White House, is twice as big in terms of number of square feet, 90,000 versus 45,000 square feet than the White House. And he did it illegally. He's building an arch. He's starting any day now to build an arch that will be the tallest structure in all of D.C. and will tower over and dominate and distract from Arlington National Cemetery. It is as if, you know, when the British came in, During the War of 1812 and burnt down the White House and attacked Washington, we have a foreign occupying force doing this, except the British did nothing like the damage that Trump is doing. There is a foreign occupier vandalizing, destroying Washington in a way that if they were associated with a foreign government, and I'll get to that in a minute, we would declare war. We would accuse these, whoever the figures were involved, of a direct violent attack on our nation's capital. And this guy's doing it every single fucking day. Speaker 2 (9:31) As the Republicans in Congress say nothing about any of this going on. And, you know, there's one more. I mean, all of this utterly outrageous. And the fact is. If and when we have a decent government in place, the cost of undoing this damage is going to be extraordinary, but it has to be done. We cannot leave in place these monuments. It's going to be like tearing down the Berlin Wall, bringing down those huge statues of dictators in autocratic societies. You cannot let them stand. There's one more outrage that nobody's talked about yet, but which I fear is coming. You and I know, as do most of the people who work in and around Washington, as do tourists who come, that right next to the White House is a majestic old building called the Old Executive Office Building. Sort of classic architecture. It's a gray building and beautiful. He wants to paint it white. It will be, if he does this. garish, and it's almost like taking a rich wooden library with the finest of hardwoods, beautiful, warm room to be in, and painting it some garish color that nobody even wants to be in. This man, who has already despoiled the White House, destroyed the Rose Garden, made the White House look like some combination of Versailles and a trailer park. Those things at least are relatively easy to rectify. You can tear down the phony gold leaf, take it off. You can remake the rose garden at costs that are not outrageous. The other stuff, it's going to be so hard and expensive to do. And all as a monument to this malignant narcissist while everybody around him His staff, his cabinet, and the lickspittles in Congress,