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Trump’s Kennedy Center Remarks Veer Into Grievances, False Claims, and Lessons on Grass
President Donald Trump wandered through a litany of grievances and a long list of concerns during his announcement of the Kennedy Center honorees at the iconic Washington, D.C., venue on Wednesday.
During his lengthy remarks, Trump falsely claimed once again that he won the “rigged” 2020 election that he actually lost, he spoke about renovations to the White House and the Kennedy Center, he gave a lesson about the importance of grass, he praised U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for newly-released favorable poll numbers, he repeatedly attacked Democrats, talked about purchasing new seats rather than refurbishing the ones at the Kennedy Center, claimed trillions of dollars in tariffs are coming in from foreign countries all over the world, acknowledged accusations of being a “dictator” after taking over Washington, D.C.’s police force, claimed D.C.’s crime statistics are fraudulent, and warned that he may do the same to top Democratic cities across the nation that he did to the nation’s capital city — all before taking questions from reporters.
As he took questions, the President continued to veer off topic. He told reporters that Congressional Democrats are led by “insane” and “crazy” people, he called the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York a “communist,” he claimed that there are no taxes on Social Security payments, he complained about “potholes” in D.C.’s roads, called for a “very talented asphalt-type person” to repave the roads, and brushed off news Russia had hacked into U.S. federal court computer systems.
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Trump continued talking to reporters, saying that he turned down “a couple of wokesters” who were nominated, talked about viewership for his “Apprentice” TV series, claimed he “finished” building the wall at the Southern border during his first term, complained about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s building renovations, talked about his nicknames for Powell — “Too Late” and for U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — “Pocahontas,” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) — “Shifty Schiff,” and Hillary Clinton — “Crooked Hillary.”
Some excerpts:
“The bones are so good,” Trump said of the Kennedy Center. “The bones of a building, you don’t have good bones, you might as well forget it. I’m working in another building, a thing, called the White House. We’re fixing it up so beautifully. It needed it.”
He also said, “we’re going to also fix up a place called Washington, D.C. We’re going to make it so beautiful again, we’re going to be redoing the parks, redoing the grass. You know, grass isn’t a lifetime like people have a lifetime, and a lifetime of this grass is long been gone when you look at the parks where the grass is all tired, exhausted, we’re going to redo the grass with the finest grasses. I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses, and if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.”
“Lindsey Graham. By the way, you have very good poll numbers. Lindsey, I just saw congratulations.”
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“We ended the woke political programming, and we’re restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world.”
Trump also said, “we secured the critical funding necessary to rebuild the building and we’re gonna get all brand new, highest level seats magnificent seats, and it’s gonna be all new. We could have taken the existing ones and do it a little paint job, a little fabric, but it’s not the same thing. So we’ll be taking out next season, all of the seats will be taken out.”
“If we say, ‘We want to stop crime in this country, or, as an example, bail, we want to make it so that people if they murder somebody, they’re in jail, they don’t get out on no bail,” Democrats “say, ‘We don’t want that. We want people to murder somebody, and they immediately are released, and they go out and murder somebody else.”
Crime in Washington, D.C. “is the worst that’s ever been, but it started as of about yesterday. It started, you see a big change, and people are feeling safe already. I’ve had so many calls. ‘Thank you, sir, thank you.’ They were afraid to walk out. They’re not afraid anymore.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
