Trump Already Knows Buildings He Wants to Take Wrecking Ball to Next

Washington has a lot more demolition on the menu if the Trump administration gets its way.

The president is eyeing another major project in the nation’s capital, planning to destroy some 13 historic buildings on the grounds of St. Elizabeths in order to expand facilities for the Department of Homeland Security, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

St. Elizabeths was the first government psychiatric hospital, erected in 1855 and formerly known as the “Government Hospital for the Insane.” It was designated a national landmark in 1990. But earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought emergency approval to destroy it, alleging that the site had become a safety hazard for her agency.

Some of the buildings currently at risk of facing a wrecking ball include the 1891 addition of Burroughs Cottage, which was constructed by a wealthy couple to house their daughter and her nursing staff. At St. Elizabeths’ height, the sprawling campus housed more than 8,000 patients and was also the location of a nursing college. But the vast acreage of St. Elizabeths has since been reclaimed for government purposes. Over the last 15 years, DHS has occupied a significant portion of St. Elizabeths’ West Campus, while the East Campus remains under the control of the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health.

In a December 19 memo to the General Services Administration, Noem claimed that the buildings warranted a complete demolition on the basis that they “constitute a present risk to life and property.” She argued that the vacant buildings could be utilized by a shooter attempting to attack Homeland Security agents.

“Demolition is the only permanent measure that resolves the emergency conditions,” Noem wrote.

Preservationist groups were given just three days to respond to Noem’s request, and respond they did. Organizations fighting for the buildings’ ongoing conservation argued that Noem’s filing was “problematic,” and that if the buildings on the campus were deemed unsafe, then it was the DHS’s fault for failing “to effectively secure them.”

“A unilateral declaration like this is problematic because it bypasses the procedural safeguards designed to ensure stability, legitimacy and fairness,” read a letter jointly signed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the D.C. Preservation League. The two groups, writing to the GSA, further argued that Noem’s concerns “imply a fundamental flaw” in her agency’s “security as a whole.”

But the Trump administration is no stranger to steamrolling historic sites, even without the proper approval. After promising Americans in July that his ballroom proposal would “be near but not touching” the White House East Wing, Donald Trump completely razed the FDR-era extension in October, plowing forward without prerequisite approval from the National Capital Planning Commission or the express permission of Congress. Conveniently, Trump started demolition during the government shutdown, when the commission was consequently closed.

The Kennedy Center has been forced to cancel their annual New Year’s Eve concert as more artists pull out to boycott President Donald Trump changing the historic venue’s name to the “Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” 

Jazz supergroup The Cookers announced Monday that they wouldn’t be performing on New Year’s Eve. 

“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the band said in a statement, refusing to name Trump but alluding to their reasoning for pulling out. “We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”

One member of the group, saxophonist Billy Harper, had already made his feelings more clear. 

“I would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing,” he said in a previous interview. “After all the years I spent working with some of the greatest heroes of the anti-racism fight like Max Roach and Randy Weston and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stanley Cowell, I know they would be turning in their graves to see me stand on a stage under such circumstances and betray all we fought for, and sacrificed for, but also betraying all the listeners that believed (and still do) in our cause and our music.”

Trump-appointed Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell dismissed The Cookers as “far left political activists.” 

The Cookers’ withdrawal comes just days after the Kennedy Center was forced to cancel its annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam due to what Grenell described as “dismal ticket sales.” The concert was free.

The Kennedy Center has been in disarray since Trump’s hostile, anti-woke takeover earlier this year, as high profile creatives and performers from Issa Rae to Rhiannon Giddens cancel their performances. And ticket sales have suffered, too—pointing to even darker days ahead for a once highly regarded cultural institution.  

The president has repeatedly elevated posts made by a parody account mocking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, suggesting that he either enjoys the hyperbolic messaging or that he isn’t aware of the difference between Leavitt’s real account and the one making fun of her.

Donald Trump has already shared several screenshots from the account, @WHLeavitt, to his Truth Social page, despite the fact that it’s named “Fan Karoline Leavitt.” The account bio also reads “parody account,” a designation flagged by X.

One of the account’s posts that the president recirculated read: “BREAKING: Fulton County admits 315K 2020 votes lacked required poll worker signatures—a major rule violation.”

“Republicans demand restitution for Rudy Giuliani, hit with charges & $148M fine for contesting GA election,” it continued. “Do you support giving his money back?”

Another post by the parody page claimed that “Afghan ‘refugees’ in Texas want to ban Americans from eating pork and drinking beer because Allah has decided so.”

It then asked its followers whether they supported “deporting all Somalis, all Afghans, all Islamic refugees and all illegals,” providing two voting options: “Big yes” or “no.”

One post that Trump did not reshare, but maybe should have tipped him off about the account’s nature, asked followers to rate Leavitt’s butt.

Trump does spend an obscene amount of time on social media. His habits are practically akin to American teens, who spend hours online to the detriment of their mental health, according to a 2024 report by the American Psychological Association.

But his inability—or perhaps, callous disregard—to fact-check whether the posts were actually made by Leavitt raises several concerns. Firstly, it raises the question as to just how extreme Trump officials’ rhetoric can be before their leader raises an eyebrow or tries to reel them in.

But it also highlights Trump’s thoughtless approach to navigating his primary communication platform with the American public, and sparks doubt as to whether or not Trump is actually aware of what he’s consuming.

The 79-year-old has repeatedly claimed that he is in pristine condition, brushing off public alarm over his deteriorating body. But his health has been a topic of concern since he was on the campaign trail, when reports circulated that he couldn’t remember the contents of cognitive exams he claimed to ace.

The CIA carried out a drone strike bombing on Venezuelan soil last week, making it the first U.S. attack inside the country that we know of.

The strike, reported first on Monday night by CNN, hit a dock on the Venezuelan coast that the U.S. administration claims was being used by Tren de Aragua for narcotrafficking. The Trump administration also claimed that the dock was empty when the strike was carried out, resulting in zero casualties.

While Donald Trump vastly expanded the CIA’s ability to act independently, they still do not have the authority to carry out land strikes in Venezuela—although that means nothing when they’ve already extrajudicially murdered dozens of fishermen in Venezuelan waters and quite literally stolen an oil tanker.

While Trump alluded to hitting a “big facility where ships come from” last week, he refused to confirm or deny whether that attack was the one we now know was carried out by the CIA.

This is yet another alarming escalation of aggression against Venezuela. The Trump administration has gone back and forth in its justifications for their acts of war. They’ve claimed that the Venezuelan government is a malicious narcostate, that they want to make Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “cry uncle,” and that Venezuela was shipping their oil to “foreign terrorist organizations.” Either way, this reeks of classic U.S. intervention in Latin America that will likely further destabilize a country that we’ve been antagonizing for decades.

Americans across the country are facing enormous scam risks because of their president.

In a fundraising email circulated Monday, Donald Trump told his supporters that Democrats would steal their “tariff rebate checks” if they didn’t donate money to him within the hour.

“Troubles are BOILING OVER,” the email reads. “Dems want to send your check to illegals if you don’t respond in the next hour!”

Earlier this month, Trump floated the idea that the federal government would subsidize checks to American citizens to offset the cost of his “Liberation Day” tariff plan, seemingly similar to how he distributed funds during the Covid-19 pandemic. But within hours, scammers were already attempting to cash in on the national confusion. One scam flagged by the Better Business Bureau promised call recipients with unclaimed tariff rebate checks worth upwards of $5,000.

But Trump’s team has not taken heed of just how similar their fundraising language is to that of scam callers, seemingly more than happy to jump in on the hysteria.

“Only a massive and immediate response will do,” the president’s fundraising email continued. “I need YOU to help me hit my end-of-year fundraising goal by midnight tomorrow or EVERYTHING we’ve worked so hard to accomplish could go BYE BYE.”

A similar fundraising email issued by Trump’s team earlier this month urged recipients to “confirm” their names in order to receive the government checks. At the bottom, the message claimed to be “the only tariff rebate email authorized by President Trump.” That ad was paid for by “Never Surrender, Inc.,” a recently rebranded super PAC that mechanized Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and noted that it was not official communication with the U.S. government.

Regardless of the fact that Trump’s email has more in common with well-worn messages from a Nigerian prince than official White House communication, the entire concept of a tariff rebate program is nonsensical. Economists have repeatedly pointed out that tariffs are effectively taxes paid by importers and offset to consumers, rather than a legitimate revenue stream that pools money for future use.

Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump from claiming that his administration has made “millions”—or maybe “billions”—off of the unstable trade plan.