Trump’s Takeover Wrecks Kennedy Center as Subscriptions Plummet

Subscriptions to the Kennedy Center have dropped by more than a third since Donald Trump took over the arts institution and promised to remake it in his image.

Sales are down by about $1.6 million, or roughly 36 percent, compared to this time last year, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. By June 2024, subscription sales had produced $4,413,147.

But so far this year, the Kennedy Center has only made $2,656,524 from subscription sales, as well as an additional $155,243 from a special deal, according to internal data shared with the Post by former Kennedy Center staffers. A current staff member anonymously confirmed the numbers.

Subscriptions are just one source of revenue for the Kennedy Center. Others include donations, individual ticket sales, and government funding. But the current staffer said it was important to provide an indication of what is going on behind the center’s closed doors.

“We understand providing information like this can be seen in a bad light,” the current staffer told the Post. “But we feel that it is necessary to show that mismanagement by the new leadership is becoming a real problem for the health of the organization.”

The employee said that the new Trump-installed leadership has ignored staff opinions and even fired people who disagreed. As a result, “we feel that we no longer have a choice but to force complete transparency with the public.”

Trump took over the prestigious arts organization earlier this year, saying he plans to “bring it back” from disrepair—meaning get rid of any performances he deems too “woke.” So far, multiple productions have already backed out of performing at the center in protest against Trump.

Interestingly, though, one of the shows Trump has apparently approved to run at the Kennedy Center is Mrs. Doubtfire, which famously features a man in drag.

When asked about Trump’s effect on the Kennedy Center’s popularity, the new leaders pointed to large audiences at events such as a fireworks show by artist Cai Guo-Qiang and a screening of the animated film The King of Kings. Both of those events were free, according to the Post.

The Democratic National Committee will be distributing free tacos on Tuesday in reference to the new TACO slogan inspired by Donald Trump: “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

The DNC has commissioned a taco truck that will be parked outside the Republican National Committee’s Washington, D.C., headquarters from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The address, for those who want free tacos, is 310 First Street SE.

The truck will also come with a graphic of Trump in a chicken suit and the “Trump Always Chickens Out” slogan.

“With his idiotic trade policy, he talks a big game, caves, and then leaves working families and small businesses to deal with the fallout,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement to Axios.

Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong coined the term TACO last month to describe Trump’s tendency to announce massive tariffs before suddenly changing his mind, as he has done over and over again. The term has become common among Wall Street traders trying to predict the market.

When asked by reporters about the term last week, Trump clearly had never heard of the nickname before. Once a reporter explained it to him, he lashed out. “Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question. To me that’s the nastiest question,” he said.

It would certainly be nice if the Democrats had a plan to fight fascism beyond distributing free tacos. On Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries struggled to come up with an answer when he was asked how Democrats will respond to ICE agents handcuffing an aide to Representative Jerry Nadler inside his office—what seems to be part of a disturbing trend of the Trump administration targeting Democratic lawmakers.

Far-right MAGA influencer and professional bigot Laura Loomer held a private meeting with Vice President JD Vance at the White House on Tuesday morning, according to three sources who spoke with CNN.

The sources would not tell CNN what the two discussed, but it’s still a notable meeting in multiple ways, beyond the fact of who Loomer is and what she stands for. First, as CNN’s Alayna Treene noted, the last time Loomer was in the White House was in April, when she directly met with Donald Trump. After the meeting, the White House fired several people at the National Security Council whom Loomer had been calling disloyal to the MAGA agenda, including National Security Agency Director Mike Waltz of SignalGate fame.

Loomer took credit for Waltz’s ousting, claiming that she sowed doubts about his loyalty to Trump during their meeting. (Recall that Waltz isn’t totally gone from this administration, though, as Trump has nominated him to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.)

Loomer’s Tuesday meeting with Vance is also interesting given that it comes one day after Wired reported that Trump’s team is getting fed up with her. Multiple Trump advisers told Wired that “while they have seen a certain utility in Loomer, even if they find her tiresome and off-putting, their mutually beneficial arrangements may be coming to an end,” the magazine reported.

“Oh, I think she’s on ice,” one Republican who earlier gave Loomer credit for Waltz’s firing told Wired. “With the president.”

Senator Joni Ernst is apparently standing by her absolutely terrible response to being told that “people will die” if the Senate approves the cuts to SNAP and Medicaid in Republicans’ current budget bill.

When asked by reporters Monday evening about her reply that “we all are going to die” after a constituent expressed her concerns in a town hall, Ernst got defensive.

“I’m very compassionate, and you need to listen to the entire conversation,” she said while getting into an elevator in the Capitol.

“We want to protect the most vulnerable,” she added as the elevator doors closed.

So let’s take a look at “the entire conversation,” as Ernst insists. During a town hall last week, as Ernst was discussing the Medicaid cuts in the bill, one of her constituents called out, “People will die!”

“People are not—well, we all are going to die, so for heaven’s sakes,” Ernst replied.

She later claimed that “we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable” and that “those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect.”

Over the weekend, the Iowa Republican doubled down, posting an outrageous video message on her Instagram story.

“I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement I made yesterday at my town hall,” Ernst said, while walking through what appears to be a cemetery.

“I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” Ernst continued with a straight face. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.

“But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Republicans have added Medicaid work requirements to the budget bill, purportedly to boot non-disabled, jobless Americans off the program. In reality, work requirements could end health coverage for people who are temporarily unemployed, such as those who were recently fired and are looking for a new job.

A report released in February by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that implementing work requirements for Medicaid could strip away health care for 36 million Americans—half of Medicaid’s enrollees.

But Ernst seems unbothered by facts.

The U.S. secretary of education is having issues with basic math. 

Linda McMahon testified on Trump’s 2026 budget before the Senate on Tuesday. While discussing spending on federal grants programs for disadvantaged students—TRIO and the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP—she made a massive math error. 

“We spend $1.58 billion a year on TRIO?” Republican Senator John Kennedy asked McMahon. 

“Yes,” she replied. 

“That’s one thousand five hundred and eighty million dollars a year? Is my math right?” Kennedy said, spelling out $1.58 billion.  

“I think that’s right, sir.” 

“And how long have we been spending one thousand five hundred and eighty million a year on this program?” he asked.

“I’m not sure the total length and time of the program.” 

“More than 10 years?”

“Yes.” 

“So that’s over a trillion dollars that we’ve spent on this program.... We give this money, as I appreciate it, to colleges and universities to encourage poor kids to go to college,” Kennedy said to no objection from McMahon, before going on to insinuate that the colleges were stealing this grant money from the government for their own purposes. 

Democratic Senator John Reed jumped in to check the math, as both Kennedy and the education secretary were way off.

“I’m not a great mathematician, but I think you were talking about a trillion dollars? I believe $1.5 billion times 10 is $15 billion, and that’s a little bit off from a trillion dollars,” Reed stated, referring to Kennedy and McMahon’s claim.

“I think the budget cuts $1.2 billion,” McMahon responded. 

“Well that would be $12 billion, not a trillion dollars,” said Reed, calmly holding McMahon and Kennedy’s hands through what amounted to a third-grade math lesson. 

“OK,” McMahon said stiffly. 

The hearing was a mess in other ways, as well. McMahon also refused to clarify to Senator Tammy Baldwin whether or not she would distribute congressionally appropriated funds for after-school programs.

“What we have done in putting forward our operating plan, the first operating plan to show where we’re making allocations, and then followed up with the second operating plan—”

“This isn’t a nuanced question,” Baldwin interrupted. “Congress passed a law appropriating this funding. You said in your confirmation hearing you would spend funding Congress appropriated. If the answer isn’t simply ‘yes,’ based on all the evidence before us, that leads me to believe that you are planning to withhold funding and short-change schools, students, and families across America.”