Archives for category: Trump
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Heather Cox Richardson on Current Events

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2026 //
2

Heather Cox Richardson covered some of the same ground as my previous post, but with more.

Before noon on Saturday, June 13, Charles M. Floca, whom Trump installed at the head of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, certified to the court that “the Center and its Board have complied with the Court’s order.” They had, he wrote, “[r]emoved all physical signage on the Kennedy Center building and grounds, including the front portico, that purports to rename the Kennedy Center after President Trump or any other individual besides President Kennedy,” updated the website, removed references to Trump from letterhead, promotional materials, and so on, and “[w]ithdrawn any trademark application officially referring to the Kennedy Center as the ‘Trump Kennedy Center’…or any similar formulation.”

What they did not do was take down the tarp workers installed last night around the scaffolding they erected yesterday, hiding the portico wall. Through a crack between the tarp and the wall, photographers caught a few images of letters coming down shortly after 3:00 AM—Cliff Owen of the Associated Press got an iconic shot of a worker loosening the P from the wall—but so far the public has not seen the restored facade. The portico remained shrouded all day.

In a statement, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said that the center was “fully compliant with the court’s directive” and that the board was evaluating “legal options.” Tonight workers were back at the Kennedy Center, where they created passageways in the tarp to make the center’s doors accessible while keeping the wall where Trump had put his name covered.

Last night, while workers were putting up scaffolding at the Kennedy Center, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters held a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial in advance of the UFC cage matches to be held at the White House on Trump’s 80th birthday on Sunday. Trump sent the United States Army Herald Trumpets, the U.S. Army ensemble chiefly responsible for playing the entrance and exit fanfares for the President of the United States, to open the event.

The fighters walked from Lincoln’s statue down the steps of the memorial through the Armed Forces Full Honor Cordon, a pathway formed between two groups made up of sixteen service members in dress uniforms. This is the U.S. military’s highest ceremonial formation, usually reserved for heads of state, foreign dignitaries, senior officials, and funerals for military heroes.

This morning the weigh-in for the UFC fights at the White House also took place at the Lincoln Memorial. Heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit seemed to pretend to throw up, dribbling colored liquid from his mouth. “So what? Maybe I was drinking last night,” Hokit told the media there. “Who wouldn’t be? I’ve got a giant man who wants to knock me out,” he said, referring to his scheduled opponent Derrick Lewis, whom Alex Pattle of Yahoo! Sports identifies as Trump’s favorite fighter. “He has the most knockouts in UFC history.”

Today stunt performer Travis Pastrana performed a backflip on his dirt bike over the UFC octagon fight arena on the South Lawn of the White House. Other riders performed stunts as well. They were filmed on their bikes, flying across the facade of the White House.

On the eve of his 80th birthday, the president posted an image of the Obama Presidential Center as a garbage can surrounded by a homeless encampment. Then he posted an image of himself leaving his trial in Manhattan Criminal Court in 2024, when a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts, under the caption “Only Trump.” Then he posted an image from 2018 of himself walking with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Then he posted a picture of himself speaking at a lectern in front of Air Force One while he was campaigning for reelection in August 2020.

Then he posted an AI image of himself on a ship looking out at battleships from different eras, including a wooden sailing vessel, flying the American flag, with fighter jets in formation overhead; the back of his jacket is emblazoned with “COMMANDER IN CHIEF,” and the caption reads: “YOU’RE GETTING DISCOMBOBULATED.”

Then he posted an image of himself on the cover of Fortune magazine from December 8, 1986. And then he posted a black and white image of himself as a younger man in the same era, looking pensive, seated in a chair on an ice rink, with the caption: “Years ago after saving the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park—Long before I fixed The Reflecting Pool, and everything else in Washington, D.C. including, most importantly, CRIME! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Tomorrow night, the fighters will enter the ring from the Oval Office. The fight will be carried live on Paramount Plus, for a fee of $8.99 and up.

—

Notes:

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ufc-white-house-fighter-throws-201255308.html

Motocross athlete Travis Pastrana says he’s doing stunt on White House lawn ahead of UFC fight

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/ufc-white-house-motocross-stunts-fights-b2994917.html

Everything You Need To Know About The UFC Fight At The White House

https://usarmyband.com/ensembles/the-u-s-army-herald-trumpets

UFC Freedom 250: White Sick of Weather Talk, Hokit Gets Topuria Heated

Bluesky:

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Instagram:

reels/DZisjt6Ct7y/

Trumpstruth.org:

statuses/39238

statuses/39242

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Categories Trump

Trump’s Name is Being Removed from the Kennedy Center Right Now!

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2026 //
9

Earlier today, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal by the Trump-selected board of the Kennedy Center to delay the removal of his name from the structure that houses the Center. They said in an unsigned decision that the board should comply with the decision of Federal Judge Christopher Cooper to remove Trump’s name by midnight tonight.

Construction crews began erecting scaffolding this morning but had to stop work because of a heavy rain. They resumed work and are still erecting the scaffold to reach Trump’s name.

Many media outlets are live-streaming the work in front of the building.

Jim Acosta is live-streaming the event along with hundreds of people who have come to witness the event.

Acosta has his own show and is also on Substack, YouTube, and BlueSky.

C-SPAN is also live-streaming the event, as are other cable networks and stations.

Almost midnight, and work on the scaffold continues. Odd the way they built the scaffold up til now. The left side doesn’t reach the letters THE DO.

The right side covers a large blank space.

Categories Trump

Watch the Removal of Trump’s Name from the Kennedy Center, Live!

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2026 //
5

MS NOW is live-streaming the removal of Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Right now.

Categories Art, Ethics, History, Trump

Federal Judge Rejects Request to Block Removal of Trump Name from Kennedy Center

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2026 //
2

Federal Judge Christopher Cooper turned down a request by the current administration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to delay his previous order to remove Trump’s name from the building and all other signage.

Soon after his inauguration, Trump replaced the bipartisan board of the Kennedy Center with his allies, who promptly selected Trump as chairman of the board. The only non-Trump Democrat appointee who remained was ex-officio member Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). The other board members tried to prevent her from participating in votes, but she persisted and filed the lawsuit to take Trump’s name down.

Trump has nearly destroyed the Kennedy Center since he took control. He replaced key administrators with his lackeys. The shake-up alienated audiences and performers. Artists canceled their performances, and ticket sales plummeted.

The board addressed the crisis by deciding to close the Kennedy Center for two years for renovations, possibly total demolition. The federal judge blocked that decision.

The dilemma now is that the Kennedy Center sits mostly empty now, with nothing lined up for the next season, when the board expected that the Center would be closed for renovation.

The Washington Post reported:

A federal judge Friday denied the Kennedy Center’s last-ditch motion to delay removing President Donald Trump’s name from the performing arts venue, as crews erected scaffolding next to the building less than 12 hours before the court-ordered deadline to do so.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center’s lawyers failed to demonstrate they were likely to win their appeal or that the center would suffer “irreparable harm” if Trump’s name were removed….

In February 2025, Trump purged the center’s board of trustees and replaced them with political allies who then elected him board chair. In December, those loyalists voted to rename the venue, and a day later, crews added Trump’s name to the exterior.

Trump claimed that the board’s vote to do so was a surprise, but he had joked about naming the center after himself for months. Within hours his name was on the website, and the next morning the building’s sign read: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Justice Department lawyers representing Trump later acknowledged that, given the speed with which the signage was installed, it had been “prepared and/or purchased prior to the Board’s vote the day before.”

Categories Art, Disruption, Ethics, Trump

“They Walk Among Us”–Who Are They?

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2026 //
9

Masha Gessen, columnist for The New York Times, describes the Trump administration’s latest effort to dehumanize immigrants and to desensitize U.S. to Trump’s inhumane treatment of them.

Gessen writes:

“They walk among us.” The glowing green letters emerge ominously against a dark backdrop. Above them hover the words “aliens” and “declassified,” suggesting the release — long awaited in some corners of the internet — of secret government files concerning extraterrestrials. Slowly, tantalizingly, more text appears: “For 60 years, the U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret.” Then the big reveal: It’s not the trailer for a horror film; it’s a White House web page, posted last Thursday. And the scary creatures in question aren’t extraterrestrials; they’re the other kind of aliens — the immigrant kind, the kind hunted by ICE.

“Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, and interacting with us in our daily lives,” the page announces. “They’ve shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes as our children, and lived seemingly normal human existences.” That’s the joke: Human beings are described as nonhuman invaders. Fascism, but make it a troll.

This web page, which invites users to look up the number of immigrants supposedly arrested on charges of criminal activity in American cities and towns, belongs to a subgenre of Trumpian gestures that are menacing and sophomoric at the same time. “Grotesque and terrifying and juvenile,” is how Ernesto Verdeja, a genocide-prevention expert at the University of Notre Dame, described it to me. These gestures are hard to write about: The ugliness is undisguised, so what is there to say? And yet, these statements, step by preposterous step, change the world we live in.

With phrases like, “They do not belong here” and, “Deport them all,” the page struck me as an incitement for Americans to commit acts of violence against immigrants. But Benjamin Valentino, a professor of government at Dartmouth College, thinks that the purpose of the page is not to get Americans to do anything: It’s to get them to do nothing, while the government commits its campaign of cruelty against millions of people just trying to live in peace. “They want a majority of the population to turn their backs,” he said. “That’s all that’s necessary.”

Who are they? Elon musk? Peter Thiel? Dangerous immigrants!

Categories Bigotry, Evil, Extremism, Fascism, Immigration, Trump

I Want an Exemption from All IRS Audits, Just Like Trump! You Too!

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2026 //
2

No President in our history has ever sued the federal government that he leads. But Donald Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion because an IRS contractor released his tax returns during his first term in office. The public and the media learned that in some years, he paid no taxes and in one year, his tax payment was a total of $750.

He was insulted and “damaged” by the leak of his tax returns, but every other president since Richard Nixon in 1973 has released his tax returns (Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, released a summary of his returns).

Right before the case went to trial, Trump and Todd Blanche, the acting U.S. Attorney General, reached a deal and withdrew the lawsuit. Even before the trial got started, Federal Judge Kathlyn Williams, who would hear the case, wondered whether there were any real adversaries or was Trump suing himself.

Although other presidents released their tax returns to show they had no conflicts of interest, Trump broke this tradition. During his first term in office, he repeatedly said that he would release his returns when the IRS finished auditing them. A decade later, his taxes were never released. This must be the longest audit in history. By now, the public understands that he will never release his tax returns.

The deal was that Trump would “settle” for the establishment of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to pay to people who claimed to have been wrongly prosecuted by the Justice Department. Trump would chair the board of the fund and have the power to remove other board members. In short, Trump would control a slush fund for his allies, not only the insurrectionists of January 6, 2021, but other friends such Mike Lindell (the My Pillow Guy), Roger Stone, John Eastman, Rudy Guiliani, and others who joined Trump in claiming that the 2020 was “rigged.” Even rioters who had struck and injured police officers would be eligible.

In a separate agreement, Blanche signed a document declaring that the IRS would not audit Trump nor members of his family nor his companies. Presently, Trump owes the IRS over $100 million because of a disputed deduction. That debt would go away. What was unclear in this agreement was whether this audit exemption applied not only to the past and present but also the future.

The uproar against this deal was bipartisan. Republican members of Congress spoke out against the slush fund. During the upcoming election, they could not defend federal payouts to insurrectionists, especially those who attacked law officers.

At hearings, Todd Blanche said the slush fund was dead (insurrectionists can still sue the Justice Department and win compensation). Trump has never said so.

But one part of the deal was left intact: the agreement that Trump and family would not be audited by the IRS.

This deal outrages me. Why should the Trump family and their business ventures be shielded from tax audits? Why not me? Why not you? Why not everyone who pays taxes?

“Maybe he doesn’t want the American people … to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes…”

Trump has a long and well-documented history of tax avoidance.

In the first presidential debate of 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Trump–at Hofstra University on September 16, 2026–Clinton said:

Trump immediately replied:

“That makes me smart.”  

He added that if he had paid more taxes, the money would have been “squandered” by the government.

I remember thinking when he said that, “If everyone dodged their taxes or used every loophole, how would the U.S. fund its military or pay for Medicare or function in any way?”

This is not a man who should be exempt from IRS audits, nor should Eric, Don Jr. or the rest of the rapacious family and their corporate entities.

When Todd Blanche testified to Congress in defense of the agreement to protect the Trump family from IRS audits, Democrats expressed outrage:

Senator Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon said:

“It’s the ultimate case of an ultrawealthy individual living under one set of rules while everybody else lives under another,” Wyden said, adding about Trump: “I take it as an admission of his own guilt when it comes to tax cheating.”

Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden speaks during a hearing with Internal Revenue Service Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano on April 15, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Rep. Ron Wyden (D), Oregon

Bessent “owes the committee an explanation of what the Treasury knows about the dirty settlement,” noting the Treasury Department’s role as both “defendant and a negotiator” in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.

“This is an abuse of the IRS that goes way beyond anything that I have any familiarity with…

“Trump has set the new high water mark for public corruption… everybody in 🇺🇸 is subject to IRS audit except the Trumps. I take it as an admission of his own guilt when it comes to tax cheating. Trumps have stuffed every dollar they can into their pockets.”

A tweet: Why does a president need immunity from committing TAX FRAUD unless he is and has been committing tax fraud?

I hope that someone is planning to take legal action. This deal is unethical, dishonest, and just plain wrong.

But lawyer Elie Honig wrote that Trump is likely to keep his audit exemption because no one is injured by his deal and no one has standing to sue.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Ethics, Extremism, Fraud, Trump

RFK Jr. Is Blocking the Most Effective Treatment to Curb Lyme Disease

By dianeravitch
June 8, 2026 //
4

Those of us who live in the Northeast have to worry about the danger of Lyme disease, a very serious disease that occurs because of tick bites. If you live in a high-rise building, it’s not a problem. But if you garden or walk in the woods, you and your dog are at risk of getting a tick on your body. They burrow into your skin, and they carry diseases that can be very dangerous, even fatal. Our pets can be protected against ticks with tick collars or serums, but there’s nothing we can do to protect ourselves other than to cover up, use repellent sprays, and keep checking to see if there’s any ticks on our body or our scalp.

In the Northeast, ticks are abundant. On the island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coastline of Massachusetts, there are 11 times as many ticks as in the rest of the state. Residents are eager to find ways to protect themselves.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently traveled to New Hampshire to talk about his plans to combat Lyme disease.

Rich DiPentima, public health specialist, explained that Kennedy’s ignorance and his contempt for vaccines were evident.

He wrote in InDepthNH:

On Friday, DHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited New Hampshire to promote improved treatment, diagnostics and prevention strategies to reduce the burden of Lyme disease.  I applaud Mr. Kennedy’s efforts to improve the much needed advancements in Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment, however, his approach to prevention reflects a poor understanding of the epidemiology of Lyme disease.

In his comments, Kennedy explained that the HHS is launching a “major, new multimillion dollar” program which will see the HHS and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) partner with researchers, to develop and deploy practical strategies to eliminate ticks on wildlife before they can breed on deer.  This comment suggests that deer are the major reservoir for Lyme disease.  In fact, most cases of Lyme disease result when individuals are bitten by infected ticks that have been on rodents and other small mammals, not deer.

Lyme disease is transmitted by infected black legged, aka deer ticks. The primary reservoir for Lyme disease in the northeastern U.S., which is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, is the white-footed mouse. When the black legged tick bites an infected mouse it becomes infected and then can transmit the disease to humans and other mammals like deer, dogs etc.  As such, strategies to prevent deer from becoming infected would be very unproductive and have very limited value in reducing Lyme disease cases in humans.  In order to do so, you would need to greatly reduce the number of mice and other small rodents that carry Lyme disease as well as reduce the tick population. Considering the huge population of mice and other small mammals as well as ticks, this would be impossible and a waste of resources. 

What was conspicuously absent from Mr. Kennedy’s prevention strategy discussion was a vaccine.  This is not surprising considering Mr. Kennedy’s history of anti-vaccine activity.  We had a Lyme disease vaccine, LYMErix, which was voluntarily discontinued in 2002 due to low consumer demand, negative media coverage and unproven concerns regarding adverse side effects.  However, Pfizer and Valneva pharmaceutical companies have developed a promising vaccine candidate known as PF-07307405 (VLA15) which is currently in phase 3 trials and could be released in 2027.

If Mr. Kennedy was truly serious about preventing Lyme disease on a large scale, the most effective and efficient means would be by developing a safe and effective vaccine.  As was done during COVID under Mr. Trump’s Warped Speed project, the government, working with private pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Valneva, could greatly speed up the process and have a safe and effective  vaccine available next year.  That would be a game changer with regard to Lyme disease primary prevention.  Currently, our pet dogs get vaccinated against Lyme disease.  I look forward to the day when we can also enjoy real protection from this terrible disease.  

Rich DiPentima, RN, MPH
Former Asst. Director NH Division of Public Health Services, Deputy Public Health Director Manchester Health Dept., Retired Air Force Public Health Officer and former State Representative.
Portsmouth, NH 03801

Categories Ethics, Extremism, Health, Medicine, New Hampshire, Science, Trump

Trump Posts Video About How He Is Adored Worldwide

By dianeravitch
June 6, 2026 //
14

Today is D-Day, a time to commemorate the brave Allied troops who stormed the beaches at Normandy, many knowing that they faced certain death. D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in history, the prelude to liberating Western Europe from Nazi control. Nearly 160,000 troops from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada stormed the beaches on the West coast of France, clearing the way for a massive invasion.

Presidents since the end of World War II have commemorated this day, recognizing the valor of the troops.

But not Donald Trump.

Instead, he posted a truly vain and loathsome video celebrating himself. All around the world, the AI-generated video asserts, Trump is loved, people everywhere celebrate his awesomeness. He dances his way through the video, doing that odd little dance he does with his arms.

This video should be viewed and analyzed by a panel of psychiatrists. It reeks of narcissism and clueless self-regard. Is he showing his deep need to be adored because he is not? is he hungry for admiration, so much so that he literally fakes it and advertises it? Is there a gaping hole in his heart because he didn’t get enough love when he was a child? Is he still trying to prove himself?

I’m no psychiatrist, so I hope that others who are will take up the task of analyzing this starkly narcissistic, embarrassing paean to himself.

Whatever else it is, it is not normal.

Categories Extremism, Trump

Trump Fell Asleep again Today in the Oval Office

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2026 //
19
Sleepy Donald

Trump stays up all night, rage-tweeting. A guy has to get some sleep. The only things that hold his attention are his magnificent, golden ballroom. His 250-foot arch that will crowd out the view of the Arlington National Cemetery, his repainting of the reflecting pool on the Mall so that it looks like a swimming pool. His gaudy cage for the UFC match. He thinks it’s so stunning that he’s musing about not removing it.

And look what he did to Jackie Kennedy’s beautiful rose garden! He paved it over!

Yesterday he posted an image of himself as a muscle-bound athlete, instead of an overweight old man who turns 80 in 10 days. Multiple comments on Twitter saluted him for celebrating Pride Month!
And here is a before-and-after photograph of the White House lawn. On the left is the way it is supposed to look. On the right, a picture of what Trump has done to set up a cage with arena seating for the UFC fight that will be staged to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday. he said yesterday that he might leave the cage. He compared it to the Eiffel Tower, which was supposed to be temporary but has now become an icon. Who will tell him that he has defaced the White House? It belongs to the American people, not to its current occupants.
Categories Trump

Jared and Ivanka Plan a Billion Dollar Resort on a Privatized Albanian Island

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2026 //
1

Ivanka Trump Kushner was recently interviewed about her and her husband’s plans to develop Sazan Island, off the coast of Albania, into a major resort. Five miles of private beachfront. Thousands of hotel rooms. She says she wants it to be the kind of setting that people want. It’s clear that she has no contact with most “people.”

Sazan Island is owned by the state. The Kushners intend to privatize and develop it. The president of Albania welcomes foreign investment because Albania is poor, and he wants to bolster the economy and create jobs.

Albanians are not happy. In fact, thousands of them are rioting against the deal, due to the threat to the island’s natural beauty and biodiversity. It’s possible that their riot is intensified by their views of the Trump family.

The people in the streets may block it.

Categories Billionaires, Environment, Trump
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