Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Nation & World

  • News outlets express solidarity after Trump bars some reporters

    News outlets express solidarity after Trump bars some reporters

    Many major media outlets and some high-profile Democrats panned President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.

    Trump acted on his latest barrage of threats against the press Saturday morning, when reporters for the outlets were denied access to the White House and had their badges confiscated.

    On Friday evening, Trump had accused the three outlets of running “purposely negative stories” that were untrue, though he provided no details. The Trump administration has not said what led to his decision, which many First Amendment groups called unconstitutional and unlikely to survive a court challenge.

    Condemnation from leading news outlets was nearly universal, including from many that compete directly with CNN, MS NOW, and Politico.

    “No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” said Lauren Easton, a spokesperson for the Associated Press, which filed suit over restrictions that Trump tried to impose on its White House access last year.

    The New York Times, The Washington Post, and press associations also released statements calling the ban an attack on free speech and the free press.

    Journalists at Fox News have also taken issue with the ban. One Fox contributor, Ari Fleischer, said conservatives should challenge liberal reporters. “Argue and defeat them,” he said. “Don’t ban them. Or one day they’ll ban us.” Another contributor, Jonathan Turley, said that “barring disfavored media from the White House is a terrible precedent and practice.”

    Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News anchor and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said on social media that the right to First Amendment protections “does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage.”

    “This is about more than the rights of journalists,” Heinrich added. “It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies, and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.”

    Democrats pounced on Trump’s ban as an attempt to hide his administration’s shortcomings and to distract voters from other issues. They pointed out that Republicans were heading into a challenging election cycle with high inflation and an unpopular war with Iran started by Trump, whose support in the polls has sagged.

    “Donald Trump just did what dictators throughout history have done,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on social media. “This is a democracy. You will not be able to manipulate the news or hide the truth.”

    Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called on the news media to boycott the White House if Trump “keeps violating press freedom.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said Trump was censoring the press and trying to “hide his failures.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said that Trump wanted to “control the flow of information and silence media that might hold them accountable.”

    “We will not allow Trump to undermine the First Amendment, the Constitution, and our democracy,” Sanders said on social media. “We will not accept authoritarianism.”

    High-ranking Republicans and members of the Trump administration mostly remained quiet Saturday. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has tried to restrict reporters’ access to the Pentagon, said he “fully supports” a ban on some outlets that he and Trump have labeled “fake news” for negative coverage.

    “They endangered our troops with false stories, leaks, and trafficked in fiction and lies about the President,” Hegseth said, without providing examples or evidence.

    Benny Johnson, a right-wing podcaster, also celebrated the decision to block certain outlets from the White House and pointed out that Trump had been banned from social media platforms after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.

    “No one is infringing on their ability to do reporting,” Johnson said in a social media post.

    The campaign of former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican running with Trump’s backing for a competitive Senate seat in Michigan, appeared to distance itself from the president’s decision.

    Rogers “held a news conference just this morning with invites out to each of those outlets,” Alyssa Brouillet, a spokesperson for his campaign, said in a statement. “That tells you where he stands.”

    Meghan McCain, a conservative commentator, was more explicit.

    “Unpopular opinion in my parts, but it’s insane and a very slippery slope to kick media outlets you don’t like out of the White House,” McCain said.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • Greenland, Denmark and Trump don’t exactly agree on agreement

    Greenland, Denmark and Trump don’t exactly agree on agreement

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration had reached a deal with Denmark and Greenland to expand the U.S. security presence in Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, raising the possibility of a diplomatic solution to a U.S.-made threat that nearly upended the Western alliance.

    The full contours of the deal Trump was describing were not immediately clear, but shortly after his announcement, leaders of Greenland and Denmark issued statements indicating they expected an agreement to be signed next week during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

    The two sides described the agreement in very different terms. Trump claimed the United States had secured “permanent control over security, and all other needs” in Greenland, while the Danish prime minister said the deal “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Denmark.

    That description would mean the agreement fell well short of Trump’s long-standing demand of total control over Greenland.

    Earlier this year, Trump said that “anything less” than U.S. ownership of Greenland would be “unacceptable.” He said possession of the territory was “psychologically important” to him.

    Instead, what Trump described Friday was a deal that would prevent U.S. adversaries from having a base on Greenland and expand the U.S. military presence in the territory. In his social media post, Trump said that under the deal, “no U.S. adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval.”

    Officials from Denmark and Greenland did not immediately confirm that the United States had received such veto power — a U.S. demand that they had strongly opposed in closed-door negotiations in recent months. And two people close to the negotiations said Trump’s declaration of permanent control over Greenland’s security exaggerated the degree of new powers the United States would get over the territory. The U.S. military will be working with its counterparts in Denmark and Greenland under the agreement rather than asserting control over them, a U.S. military official said.

    Still, the apparent deal, reached after months of high-stakes confidential talks with officials from the United States, Greenland, and Denmark, could mark an off-ramp to an issue that caused widespread concern among NATO allies this year.

    Trump said in his post that the United States “will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many.”

    He also said the United States would “FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland,” even though the existing U.S. agreement with Denmark to host American military bases on Greenland does not have a time limit.

    The United States first established a military presence in Greenland during World War II, and in 1951 reached an agreement with Denmark granting it broad freedom to operate military installations on the island.

    The 1951 pact allowed for access by the forces of NATO nations. But it did not explicitly restrict the presence of “adversary” nations, as Trump claimed on Friday the new agreement would do. Under the new deal, countries that are not part of NATO would not be permitted to build a base or maintain a military presence in Greenland, according to a State Department official detailing the deal under the condition of anonymity.

    Given that Greenland is alliance territory, the prospect of a non-NATO nation building bases there was already highly unlikely.

    The agreement would also remain in effect even if Greenland were to become an independent nation, the official said.

    “This deal permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

    Denmark still manages defense issues for Greenland, and one of the Trump administration’s goals has been to ensure that even if Greenland achieves independence, which many Greenlanders support, that would not change the access the U.S. military has today.

    Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, said in a statement Friday night that the agreement would strengthen “our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area and is therefore also good for NATO and Europe.”

    Frederiksen also said the deal “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination.”

    Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said in a statement that the agreement “recognizes Greenland’s interests and our place in international cooperation. It is to the benefit of us all.”

    Trump has been pushing to acquire Greenland since his first term, but leaders in both Denmark and Greenland have rejected the idea. As tensions with Trump peaked in January, the Danish military developed detailed plans to blow up airfields in Greenland in the event of a U.S. invasion. Danish soldiers were even sent to Greenland equipped with explosives and blood supplies, though the worst-case scenarios never materialized.

    The action then turned to confidential talks between the United States, Greenland, and Denmark. Negotiators met in Washington about once a month. In those talks, the United States discussed cooperation with Greenland on natural resources and expanding the U.S. military presence on the territory. According to officials close to the talks, American negotiators had been insisting on veto power over any major investment deals in Greenland to box out competitors like Russia and China.

    During the Cold War, the U.S. military maintained more than a dozen installations on the island but all were eventually shut down except one, the Pituffik Space Base, on the northwest coast. In recent weeks, U.S. military officers have been visiting the island with plans to reopen several old bases. Just this week, Denmark’s public broadcaster reported that a group of American soldiers were surveying the runway in Narsarsuaq, in southern Greenland.

    Imran Bayoumi, a deputy director for the GeoStrategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said the agreement announced Friday offered “little in the way of new content.”

    “It’s likely that Washington could have achieved many of these outcomes through negotiations with Denmark and Greenland directly, without worsening the relationship,” Bayoumi said. “Nonetheless, it gives the U.S. a critical footprint in the Arctic at a time when the region is becoming more important.”

  • Trump to form ‘AI Force,’ name AI czar but rejects calls for constraints

    Trump to form ‘AI Force,’ name AI czar but rejects calls for constraints

    President Donald Trump said he will name an official responsible for artificial intelligence and form an unspecified “AI Force,” rejecting calls from lawmakers and industry leaders for new guardrails on the rapidly advancing technology.

    Trump compared the new AI Force to the Space Force he added to the Armed Services in his first term. The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the agency would be military or civilian.

    The president’s announcement on Saturday also referenced policing “BAD” aspects of the industry through enforcement of existing criminal and civil laws.

    “We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “AI is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful.”

    The announcement came as a growing chorus, including Democrats, Republicans, and tech CEOs, call for slowing down AI development amid disclosures that Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google models went rogue and hacked other companies. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

    Trump dismissed such concerns as a hoax, comparing them to global warming, the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and his two impeachments.

    He also repeated his criticism of public opposition to data centers, calling such views “crazed.” That position has put him at odds with many Republicans who have expressed sympathy for voters’ concerns that data centers will raise electricity costs and disrupt neighborhoods.

    The White House has developed a voluntary framework for the government to review new AI models for cybersecurity risks. In resisting more AI regulation, Trump has emphasized the need to compete with China, saying last week, “Whoever wins AI wins.”

    Trump is expected to discuss AI safety with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet in Washington next week. Administration officials declined to comment on those discussions beforehand.

    U.S. defense officials and outside analysts have debated the idea of creating a separate “Cyber Force” to focus on offensive and defensive cyberwarfare for years. Currently, cyber operations are led by the Department of Defense’s Cyber Command, which draws on personnel from different branches of the military.

  • Holdout juror in Clancy trial didn’t have ‘any doubts’ that she was responsible for killing her kids

    Holdout juror in Clancy trial didn’t have ‘any doubts’ that she was responsible for killing her kids

    BOSTON — The lone juror who wanted to convict Lindsay Clancy of murder for killing her three children said he was certain of her guilt, but that other jurors wouldn’t listen to him, according to a statement released by his lawyer Friday in his first public comments on the case.

    Eleven of 12 jurors were ready to clear Clancy of criminal responsibility, with the majority feeling that the Massachusetts mom was in the grip of a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids. But juror Michael Desronvil sided with the prosecutors, who had argued that Clancy knew what she was doing.

    “I didn’t have any doubts,” Desronvil said in a statement released on X by his lawyer, Edward Paltzik.

    The jury’s foreperson had claimed in an earlier media interview that Desronvil had admitted having “reasonable doubt” about Clancy’s guilt, but wanted to convict her anyway. Desronvil said that wasn’t true.

    “As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence presented,” he wrote. “Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses, and what the prosecution presented, I thought it was enough proof that she (Clancy) knew exactly what she was doing and planned.”

    The jury’s deadlock forced the judge to declare a mistrial on Sept. 4, leaving the case unresolved. The Plymouth County district attorney has yet to say whether he’ll seek to put Clancy on trial again.

    Neither side disputed that Clancy strangled her children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan, in the family’s home in 2023 before trying to end her own life. But her attorney said she was a loving mother experiencing deep delusions and other mental health problems, for which she had been getting treatment.

    Since the trial ended, Desronvil has been both publicly praised and scorned for his actions, and his personal life and past financial and legal problems have become the subject of scrutiny by the news media and amateur sleuths.

    Among the public revelations: He had a restraining order against him at the time of jury selection and was facing eviction from his apartment due to over $12,000 in unpaid rent. He also was accused of domestic violence in 2021, a charge that was later dismissed.

    Some of the opinion has fallen along political lines, with Desronvil being praised by some conservative pundits as a hero.

    Paltzik, whose past clients have included President Donald Trump and Martin Shkreli, said on X that Desronvil was in “an undisclosed secure location” in a rural part of northern New England and would not be giving interviews.

    “As a devoted father and man of God, he will not be defeated or shattered by the wicked who wish harm upon him,” Paltzik wrote.

    A fundraiser to cover what organizers say are costs of “security, lawyers, and lost work” for Desronvil has raised over $289,000.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has rolled out the welcome mat for him, saying that if he is being harassed, “Florida will provide asylum.”

    “I’m sure he’d be welcomed and appreciated,” DeSantis wrote on X.

  • Appeals court says Trump administration’s third-country deportation policy is unlawful

    Appeals court says Trump administration’s third-country deportation policy is unlawful

    The Trump administration’s policy on deporting immigrants to third countries is unlawful, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, a decision that could halt a program that has already sent thousands of people to countries that are not their own.

    A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit unanimously agreed with a lower court judge’s decision in February that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy violates due process rights by failing to give migrants sufficient notice and a chance to raise fear-based claims to contest their deportations to third countries.

    The appeals court’s decision marks a major setback for the administration, which has sought to establish third-country deportations as a key part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Since Trump took office last year, DHS has sent more than 25,000 migrants to third countries, mostly in Latin America and Africa, according to public records. The program has raised fierce objections from congressional Democrats and legal challenges from human rights advocates who say the deportees face dangerous conditions and inhumane treatment in the countries where they are being sent.

    Legal experts said the administration is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court and seek a stay on the 1st Circuit’s decision that would allow DHS to continue sending migrants to third countries. For now, however, the deportation flights should be immediately grounded, said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, who was among the team of attorneys who brought the class-action case.

    “This is a huge win,” she said. “All those deportation flights should not be taking off because the policy under which people got put on planes and targeted for removal is unlawful.”

    DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Administration officials say third-country deportations are the only way to remove the most difficult to deport immigrants, including violent criminals who have committed rapes and murders. These immigrants have final removal orders from U.S. immigration judges, but many are protected by federal law from being sent back to home countries where they are likely to face persecution. Others cannot be returned because their home countries refuse to accept them.

    The lawsuit stemmed from DHS’s policy memos last year stating the government could deport migrants to third countries with as little as six hours’ notice, even if U.S. officials have not received assurances that the deportees would be safe from persecution or torture. Those being flown to places that have offered those assurances could be deported with no advance notice.

    The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in March 2025, arguing that the U.S. government was violating federal law and sending immigrants to places where they could be harmed or killed, without giving them a chance to argue against it, including a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico, where he had been kidnapped and raped.

    U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston barred the Trump administration from removing immigrants without giving them a “meaningful” opportunity to challenge it, and he issued a preliminary injunction in April 2025 enjoining the government from continuing with the deportation flights. Two months later, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority paused the judge’s decision in a brief, unsigned statement that did not explain its reasoning, but it cleared the way for the removals to resume as the legal case played out.

    Murphy issued a final judgment in February 2026, vacating the administration’s policy, and the Trump administration quickly filed an appeal.

    The 1st Circuit panel agreed with most of Murphy’s decision, saying that there was nothing in the public record or court filings that showed which countries had provided the State Department with diplomatic assurances that the immigrants would not face abuse.

    They added that “we have some difficulty seeing how a receiving country can credibly provide blanket assurances that all removed noncitizens will not be persecuted or tortured there unless it intends to provide them with some sort of affirmative protection against rogue agents and non-state actors.”

  • MS NOW, CNN, and Politico say their journalists were denied access to White House after Trump ban

    MS NOW, CNN, and Politico say their journalists were denied access to White House after Trump ban

    NEW YORK — Reporters from three major news organizations — CNN, MS NOW, and Politico — were denied access to the White House on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump said he was barring them because of reporting he found to be “fake news.”

    The actions were a clear escalation of Trump’s long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage by journalists he finds objectionable, and the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States. Trump had said Friday he would ban all three outlets because of coverage he disliked.

    White House reporters from the two cable networks — Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW — both went live to report they’d been turned away when arriving for their jobs at the White House. Soon after, Politico said its White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated.

    Politico editor-in-chief Jonathan Greenberger said in a statement to the Politico newsroom: “We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. … We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”

    CNN and MS NOW issued similar statements. “We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account,” CNN said.

    “The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars,” MS NOW said in its statement. “MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.“ ‘

    In his second term, Trump and his administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets, both in the courtroom and through regulatory action. Trump has also lashed out at individual reporters in person or over social media, sometimes in strikingly personal terms — insulting them in briefings, or in his recent speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

    CNN and MS NOW correspondents are turned away

    Network correspondents are usually present on the weekends when the president is in Washington or at nearby Camp David. Trump is at the presidential retreat in Maryland this weekend.

    MS NOW’s Gardner reported that she had walked through two gates successfully, but once she got to where her badge needed to be scanned, an officer told her it was disabled and asked her to hand it over. He said the decision “was above him,” she reported. An MS NOW producer was able to get in, but a photographer’s badge was also disabled, Gardner said.

    Klein, senior White House reporter at CNN, also said her badge had been deactivated. It was confiscated, and she was handed back the clear plastic case. She said she was referred to the White House press office for further information.

    Amy Kristin Sanders, a professor at Pennsylvania State University and an expert in media law, said it has “become pretty clear that this administration is not interested in playing by traditional First Amendment rules and norms.

    “The second Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on press freedom and delegitimize independent journalism far exceed those of any other modern American president,” Sanders said. ”It is not an exaggeration to say his hostile actions toward news organizations and individual reporters have a chilling effect on freedom of expression around the world.”

    CNN media analyst Brian Stelter called the move “a direct threat to press freedom in the United States.”

    “It’s so much bigger than CNN,” Stelter said. “This is a free speech test in America.”

    Trump calls these and other outlets ‘fake news’

    The president wrote on his social media site Friday that effective immediately, “I am banning” CNN, MS NOW, and Politico “from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Minutes later, speaking at an event in the Oval Office, Trump was asked to explain his statement.

    “Because they’re fake news,” he said. “You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it’s just fake. That’s why their ratings are no good. When you look at MS NOW … it’s fake news.”

    “And when you look at Politico … the stories they wrote are fake. So there’s a lot of news and there may be others to join them, and maybe they can get better,” he said. “But our country has to have honest news.”

    The move follows the president’s decision last year to bar Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other events in retaliation for the news outlet’s decision not to follow his lead in changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, which lies partially in Mexican and other waters. The AP said that it would note when appropriate that Trump had ordered it renamed the “Gulf of America.”

    The AP filed suit and the case is ongoing. Since returning to office, Trump has pursued other legal action against a variety of different outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC. His administration is also involved in a long-simmering confrontation involving ABC over renewal of its broadcast licenses.

    The AP said Saturday it supported the news organizations banned this week. In a statement, it said: “No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use.”

  • Thousands rally outside shuttered Kennedy Center, chanting ‘Hands off!’

    Thousands rally outside shuttered Kennedy Center, chanting ‘Hands off!’

    Thousands of supporters of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts gathered Friday as the sun set over the Potomac, surrounded as much of the building as they could, linked arms, and chanted: “Hands off! Hands off!”

    For the first time in what felt to them like ages, their beloved arts center was brimming with life.

    The vigil, which had been in the works for months, took on fresh urgency at the end of a week that saw the doors to the marble building locked shut, while President Donald Trump indicated the structure could be “ripped down” if his name isn’t added to the institution.

    There were dogs and bikers; elders with gray hair and babies with no hair; people in Nationals jerseys and business casual attire (equally ubiquitous D.C. uniforms). Most wore one common item: a red pin that read, “Hands Off the Arts.”

    The protest was organized by an advocacy group of the same name, which was founded by Kennedy Center staff in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s takeover last spring and has since campaigned against his changes to the institution.

    “The center had more or less become like a mausoleum rather than a vibrant cultural center,” co-organizer Mallory Miller said before the vigil. “But a lot of us have amazing memories of the center hustling and bustling with people. We wanted to kind of bring that feeling back.”

    The event was initially planned for July as a cap to the group’s 172-day protest of Trump’s changes at the center. It was intended to celebrate what they saw as victories — Richard Grenell’s stepping down from his role as interim head and the center’s continued operations past July 4, when it had been previously scheduled to close. The vigil was postponed due to wildfire smoke and rescheduled for the third Friday in September — a date organizers didn’t expect to have any special significance.

    Then came the events of this week. On Tuesday, the Kennedy Center’s board voted to close its main building for two years and Trump threatened to cancel a roughly $250 million renovation unless his name was added to the center. On Wednesday, fencing was erected around the arts center and, that evening, Trump was photographed on Air Force One examining a printout with a partially visible title that appeared to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLIS[HED].” Thursday, a federal judge turned down a request for an emergency hearing about potential demolition but ordered the center to provide notice ahead of any construction, including demolition.

    So by Friday, many arts patrons were ready to protest. Early in the day, organizers expected about a thousand. By the end of the evening, they estimated the turnout was several times that number.

    Tara Hoot, a prominent D.C. drag performer and event co-organizer, hosted a storytime event at the center before Trump’s takeover. Appearances like hers were cited by Trump and his new leadership team as an examples of the kind of woke programming they wanted gone. She said she carries what feels like a responsibility to protect the institution now.

    “It’s an obligation for me to be out there fighting back,” she said in an interview with the Post.

    On Friday, Hoot dressed in honor of the American flag — long red dress, white floral pin, blue shawl. “It’s time to take that tarp down,” she said, pointing to the sheet behind her that has covered the building’s facade since Trump’s name was ordered to be removed.

    “Take it down!” the crowd chanted back to her.

    Donna Smits, 67, traveled from Delaware early Friday morning after learning about the planned protest around 11 p.m. the night before.

    She stood in the plaza’s garden and looked up at the tarp through her gold-detailed RayBans. She was close to tears.

    “It hurts a lot to look at it like that, to see all the beautiful fountains off,” Smits said. “Nobody’s name belongs on this center except John Kennedy’s.”

    The rally began with impassioned speeches from activists, artists, and politicians, including D.C. Council Member Robert C. White Jr., who recalled being introduced to the arts as a third-grader visiting the center and returning decades later to watch his own third-grade daughter perform.

    Lynda Carter, the actor known to most as Wonder Woman, made a surprise appearance to stress the importance of arts for humanity. “Music and the arts is how we actually survive,” she said. “It is how we learn. It is about vibration in the universe. It is about gravity, it’s about our souls.”

    Additional fencing was constructed Friday and some parts of the campus have been closed to the public for several weeks, so the attendees were not able to encircle the main building as initially planned. Organizers posited that were it not for the barriers, the crowd that assembled could have circled the structure 2½ times.

    Jasmine Small, who worked in ticket sales at the Kennedy Center for seven years, watched the human chain form from her perch on the plaza. She was among the first layoffs last year.

    “I’m showing up today, because no one showed up with my colleagues,” Small said. “I’m going to have a voice for them to say that we won’t be forgotten.”

    The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, whose show at the Kennedy Center for World Pride last May was canceled days after the president was announced as chairperson of the institution, returned to perform at the vigil.

    While the sky grew dark, they began a song from Ragtime.

    “Will justice be demanded by 10 million righteous men?/ Make them hear you/ When they hear you/ I’ll be near you again.”

    Then, as if on cue, the exterior lights of the building flickered to life.

  • Kennedy Center stood as a symbol of the importance of arts for over 50 years

    Kennedy Center stood as a symbol of the importance of arts for over 50 years

    For more than 55 years, the white marble facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has presided over a portion of the eastern bank of the Potomac River. Thousands of performing artists have graced its stages, bringing to life what was envisioned decades ago as a symbol of the importance of the arts in a democratic society.

    Now, the storied institution is closed. The center’s board of trustees voted Tuesday to shut down the venue, which has been beset by financial and legal troubles that snowballed after President Donald Trump and his allies took over its stewardship last year. Here are some key moments in the Kennedy Center’s storied history, and what could be lost if it disappears.

    1955-1958

    Eisenhower envisions ‘an artistic mecca’

    In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower creates a commission tasked with planning a new public auditorium in Washington. On Sept. 2, 1958, he signs the National Cultural Center Act into law, authorizing the fundraising for and construction of what he imagined would be “an artistic mecca” in the nation’s capital.

    1961-1963

    Kennedy boosts fundraising efforts

    After President John F. Kennedy assumes office, he takes the lead in promoting and raising money for the center. On Nov. 29, 1962, he hosts a black-tie fundraiser, “An American Pageant of the Arts,” in Washington. The televised event includes performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, singer Marian Anderson, pianist Van Cliburn, poet Robert Frost, and a 7-year-old cello prodigy named Yo-Yo Ma.

    “Art and the encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense,” Kennedy said in a speech that evening. “Not as a weapon in the struggle, but as an instrument of understanding of the futility of struggle between those who share man’s faith.”

    Kennedy, who was in the midst of navigating the Cold War, also argued that the United States had a “special responsibility to the arts” as a democratic society.

    “For art is the great democrat calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color,” Kennedy said.

    Jan. 23, 1964

    The center is officially renamed to honor Kennedy

    Two months after Kennedy’s assassination, Congress unanimously passes a bill to rename the National Cultural Center as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and to dedicate it as a “living memorial” to the late president.

    “I am confident we have chosen well that the institution now given the breath of life will have a long and distinguished future,” President Lyndon B. Johnson said at the bill’s signing on Jan. 23, 1964. “All those who worked in this cause can now know that they are not only honoring the memory of a very great man, but they are enriching our whole American life.”

    Dec. 2, 1964

    Johnson breaks ground

    Johnson breaks ground using the same gold-plated spade that Presidents William Taft and Franklin Roosevelt used at the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial groundbreaking ceremonies. Johnson is flanked by a model of the Kennedy Center, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, and by members of the Kennedy family.

    Sept. 8, 1971

    Kennedy Center opens

    The Kennedy Center officially opens on a Wednesday evening, with a gala and the world premiere in its opera house of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers, choreographed by Alvin Ailey.

    In the inaugural program, President Richard Nixon hails the Kennedy Center’s opening as “the fulfillment of a dream shared by Americans in every walk of life.”

    The following day, the concert hall opens with a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra, which would call the center its home for the next five decades. The Eisenhower Theater opens on Oct. 18, 1971, with a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

    Dec. 3, 1978

    Inaugural Kennedy Center Honors awarded

    The center holds its inaugural Kennedy Center Honors, a lifetime achievement award that celebrates individuals who have “an impact on the rich tapestry of American life and culture through the performing arts.”

    The inaugural ceremony was hosted by Leonard Bernstein, and honorees that year were Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers, and Arthur Rubinstein.

    Since then, the Kennedy Center Honors have been bestowed on more than 260 artists in music, dance, opera, theater, film, and television.

    1997

    Millennium Stage offers free performances

    Chairperson James A. Johnson proposes a somewhat radical idea: putting on a different free performance at the Kennedy Center every day at 6 p.m. to make the arts more accessible. Nearly 30 years later, free performances of all kinds continue to take place at the Millennium Stage on “select days of the week.” Most are livestreamed.

    2019

    The Reach expansion opens

    The Kennedy Center expands for the first time since 1971 with the opening of the Reach campus, a $250 million project that adds rehearsal rooms and outdoor performance spaces.

    The American sculptor Joel Shapiro gifts Blue, a giant stick figure preparing to leap, to the center in honor of the expansion.

    “It’s about action and risk and performance and energy. It’s a celebration of possibility,” Shapiro said in a video about Blue.

    2025

    Trump shakes up Kennedy Center board, adds his name to building

    A few weeks after President Donald Trump starts his second term in office, he announces that he is firing several Kennedy Center board members, including the chairperson, because they “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” He also names himself the new board chairperson.

    In December, the new board, stacked with Trump loyalists, votes to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” and a crew adds Trump’s name to the facade of the building the next day. The move causes ticket sales and fundraising to collapse.

    2026

    Legal battles plague center

    Amid canceled performances and boycotts of the center, Trump announces in February that the Kennedy Center will close for about two years to undergo renovations.

    “This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment, far better than it has ever been before,” Trump wrote then.

    In May, a federal judge orders that Trump’s name be removed from the center’s facade and that officials halt its renovation plans. Workers remove Trump’s name in the middle of the night.

    The legal challenges continue. The board’s trustees have continued pushing for the center to be renovated and for Trump’s name to be inscribed on the building, including renaming the center’s grounds the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

  • Trump announces ‘forever’ deal to defend Greenland as Denmark says signing ‘expected’ next week

    Trump announces ‘forever’ deal to defend Greenland as Denmark says signing ‘expected’ next week

    The White House has struck a deal that gives “permanent control over security” in Greenland to the United States, President Donald Trump said Friday, declaring victory in his long-running desire to increase U.S. sway over the Arctic territory even though the deal fell far short of actual conquest.

    The president said he had agreed with Danish and Greenlandic leaders that Washington would have wide-ranging powers to secure Greenland, “completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.”

    In a post on Truth Social, he said that “at my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America.”

    He said that there would be no cost to the United States, without explaining how.

    Trump has long sought to take possession of Greenland, declaring concern about Chinese and Russian ambitions there and also saying he wanted to control the territory’s mineral resources.

    His efforts in January to accelerate a U.S. takeover spurred fears in Europe that the United States could attempt to take the island by force — an unprecedented effort by NATO’s most powerful member to invade another NATO member’s territory. Instead, Danish and U.S. leaders entered negotiations that led to Friday’s agreement.

    Danish and Greenlandic leaders issued a statement after Trump posted the announcement that said they “expected” to sign an agreement next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

    “I am pleased that there is the prospect of a good agreement for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the United States,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in the statement.

    “An agreement that strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic region and is therefore also good for NATO and Europe. And an agreement that at the same time recognizes the Kingdom’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.”

  • Trump says son has paid back Russian for wedding party

    Trump says son has paid back Russian for wedding party

    President Donald Trump said Friday that his son paid back the well-connected Russian businessperson who funded his wedding celebrations.

    A person close to Donald Trump Jr. confirmed the repayment.

    The contribution of hundreds of thousands of dollars, revealed Monday by the investigative news website ProPublica, came from Umar Kremlev, a boxing executive who does business with the Russian state and has received honors from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    President Trump did not attend the wedding, which included about 50 people and occurred on private Bahamian islands.

    The president defended the contribution, calling it “common” for people to give a wedding party to a friend.

    “It’s totally allowed, but as I understand it, he paid him back,” Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office. “He didn’t want to have that.”

    The bride, Bettina Trump, confirmed the gift, but denied that it came with any sinister or political motive.

    Kremlev met Trump Jr. several years ago and speaks limited English, according to ProPublica.