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- [00:17]
Amy Goodman
From Belfast, Northern Ireland and Chicago. This is democracy now.
- [00:24]
Juan Gonzalez
Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did. I've had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.
- [00:43]
Amy Goodman
President Trump is pressuring Israel to stop attacking Lebanon after the US and Iran agreed to extend their current ceasefire for 60 days. We'll speak with Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. We'll also ask Trita about reports he's under a State Department investigation that could lead to his deportation. Then, as SpaceX founder Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire, we'll go to South Texas, where environmental and conservation groups have sued to block a land swap that would give SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge.
- [01:26]
Becca Hinojosa
SpaceX getting more money means the rocket facility getting larger, creating more damages to poor people's homes, dumping more pollution into the environment, into Ontario Beach. The SpaceX IPO means a bigger environmental disaster for this South Texas community.
- [01:48]
Amy Goodman
Finally, President Trump's name has been removed from the exterior of the Kennedy center for the Performing Arts following a judge's order. But the battle over the arts institution goes on. We'll speak to two former Kennedy center programmers who were fired by the Trump administration, including the renowned artist and playwright Mark Vemouti. Joseph all that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We're broadcasting from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Vice President J.D. vance says the Trump administration plans to release the full text of its memorandum of understanding to end the war with Iran this week as details of the agreement with Tehran, Iran remain a secret. On Monday, Vance disputed a report by an Iranian state run news agency that the memo would see billions of dollars in Iranian assets unfrozen. While mandating that the US pay Iran $300 billion for reconstruction costs, Vance said the reparations would instead be paid by neighboring Gulf states. This comes as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged not to abide by the latest cease fire agreement between in Iran. On Monday, Netanyahu made his first public remark since Trump announced the deal. Over the weekend. The Israeli leader said he had no intention of withdrawing his forces from southern Lebanon. For decades I've been fighting Iran's efforts
- [03:30]
Trita Parsi
to acquire nuclear weapons. I can define this as my life's mission.
- [03:34]
Amy Goodman
I have upheld it till now and I will uphold it in the future as well, earlier today, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arabchi warned Iran will consider it a direct violation of the interim agreement with the United States unless Israel halts all attacks and withdraws from occupied Lebanese territory. We'll have more on Iran after headlines with Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Gaza. Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least four Palestinians Monday. Among the dead, Palestinian paramedic Mohammad El Habil. He worked at Al Shifa Hospital. His father says Al Habil was filling water containers on a rooftop with his son Musa when the two were blown up in an Israeli airstrike. He was on the rooftop with his son.
- [04:27]
Juan Gonzalez
Why did they target him? He hadn't done anything wrong.
- [04:29]
Amy Goodman
They targeted him because he is a doctor who works at Al Shifa Hospital.
- [04:33]
Juan Gonzalez
They knew he is a doctor and they targeted him.
- [04:37]
Amy Goodman
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians in the village of Burqa say Israeli settlers tried to burn down a mosque with dozens of people inside during religious services Sunday evening. That followed a separate arson attack in the nearby town of Deirdibuan where Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to two vehicles and damaged several others. This is Yassir Rashid, a 92 year old Palestinian American resident of Deirdibuan who narrowly avoided being burned alive.
- [05:12]
Juan Gonzalez
I looked out the window and leaned forward. Suddenly a person with a gasoline canister sprayed it in my eyes and on my clothes and lit the fire. The window caught on fire but I stepped back and it did not get to me. Thank God.
- [05:28]
Amy Goodman
A Palestinian American 20 year old woman has been imprisoned by Israel for about two weeks. On June 2, Israeli soldiers broke down the door of Sana Safi's family home in the occupied west bank and took her in the middle of the night. Safi is a psychology student at Birzait University in the occupied West Bank. The Guardian reports at least three other students at Birzeit have also been detained, including a member of the Palestinian women's national soccer team. Safi's families raised concerns, saying she has a chronic medical condition that needs treatment. Several US Lawmakers, including Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, have demanded Safi's release. In Russia, the Moscow oil refinery erupted in flames today following a long range Ukrainian drone attack targeting energy infrastructure. The refinery normally provides nearly half of fuel supply to Russia's capital city. The attack followed deadly Russian strikes across Ukraine over the weekend and came one day after Ukraine officially began negotiations in Luxembourg to join the European Union, a years long process that will require Kiev to commit to political reforms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has joined leaders of the U.S. and its allies for closed door meetings on Russia's war in Ukraine as the G7 holds its annual summit in the French town of Lebanon. President Trump arrived at the talks Monday. Also on the agenda, trade tensions and the US And Israeli wars on Iran and Lebanon. In Pennsylvania, the Allegheny county medical Examiner's office has ruled Haitian asylum seeker Daffy Michel's death a homicide after she was found lying cold and unresponsive at a Pittsburgh bus stop where ICE had left her days earlier. A statement released by the Allegheny county medical examiner read, quote, the opinion of the forensic pathologist in this case is that Ms. Michel was a vulnerable adult suffering from untreated severe mental health issues and a significant language barrier when she was released from federal custody February 27, unquote. Immigration Attorney Joseph Patrick Murphy represents Michelle's family. He spoke with CBS Pittsburgh.
- [07:55]
Trita Parsi
She had mental challenges. She was arrested for at one point screaming at imaginary people. And they knew this.
- [08:01]
Juan Gonzalez
They just dumped her in a bus
- [08:03]
Trita Parsi
shelter, language barrier, educational barrier and psychiatric barrier and left her to fend for herself. The bus shelter she never figured out how to leave. She sat there for days and ultimately froze to death.
- [08:15]
Amy Goodman
An immigrant from Belize and leading organizer of an ongoing hunger strike at the Atlanto ICE Jail in California has reportedly been deployed deported. The Immigrant Offenders Law center says Kyan Shaquille Suzzo was transferred to various detention facilities in Texas and Louisiana without notice before being deported when advocates believe is retaliation for his organizing. His deportation came just days after Swazo spoke out about inhumane conditions at Atalanta with members of Congress and his legal team. The Adelanto ICE jail is operated by the for profit private prison company Geo Group, which also runs the Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey, where a labor and hunger strike led by detained immigrants reportedly continues after nearly a month in Indiana. Over 150 people gathered outside the Clay County Jail for an interfaith vigil demanding the release of Sala Sassoor, the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, a revered Palestinian community leader. Sarsour has been held at the jail for over two months. The vigil Sunday was attended by Jewish community members, Muslim leaders and members of Sarsour's family, including his eldest son, Karim. This is Rachel Ida Buff, writer, organizer and historian at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
- [09:46]
Becca Hinojosa
Since they kidnapped him on March 30, Saleh has been in that detention center in the Clay County Jail. He has been denied his medical and religious rights. Saleh is a type 2 diabetic. He needs to test his blood every day. They let him test monthly at best. He has lost 30 pounds in detention and he is very ill. He has asked for a prayer rug and had it taken away. When he asked for a Quran, he was offered a Bible. When he's asked for healthy food, they have offered him pork rinds, which is just cruelty in action.
- [10:23]
Amy Goodman
White House officials last year debated whether to suspend habeas corpus rights for immigrants and asylum seekers as President, Trump looked for ways to bypass judges in deportation cases. That's according to the New York Times, which reports White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf wrote a secret memo to Susie Wiles, chief of staff, outlining his opposition to a plan by Senior Trust Trump adviser Stephen Miller to suspend the rights of immigrants to challenge their deportations in court. The New York Times also reported Vice President J.D. vance pushed to invoke the Insurrection act in January, just days after federal immigration agents in Minnesota shot and killed the intensive care nurse Alex Pretty. The revelations draw from reporting by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their forthcoming book titled Regime Change Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. The United Kingdom will ban children under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok X and YouTube to protect them from harmful content. The restrictions were announced Monday by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
- [11:43]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
It will make a huge difference.
- [11:46]
Amy Goodman
It will make our children safer.
- [11:48]
Juan Gonzalez
It will make our children happier and
- [11:50]
Amy Goodman
will give them more time, more security,
- [11:53]
Trita Parsi
more freedom to grow up, more opportunity.
- [11:58]
Amy Goodman
Britain joins Australia, which last year became the first country in the world to impose a ban on social media for children under 16. Meanwhile, over a dozen other countries, including France and Denmark, are weighing legislation that would restrict children's access to social media, websites and apps. In more news from Britain, an appeals court has ruled the British government acted lawfully when it banned the group Palestine Action under its Terrorism act. More than 3,000 activists have been arrested since the ban was imposed in July of last year, according to Al Jazeera, Amnesty International UK said on social media quote quote the banning of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization is a grave misuse of counterterrorism powers with serious consequences for human rights, unquote. To see our coverage of Palestine action, go to democracynow.org and the South African jazz musician and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has died at the age of 91. Ibrahim was born to parents of mixed ethnic descent in the 30s Cape Town, South Africa, and made his professional debut as Dollar Brand at the age of 15. Over the decades, he went on to produce more than 70 records. Ibrahim's best known work is Manenburg, recorded in 1974, a major anti apartheid anthem that reportedly inspired Nelson Mandela. During his long imprisonment. Ibrahim performed at Mandela's 1994 inauguration as South Africa's first black president. Mandela reportedly referred to him as our Mozart. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan.
- [13:58]
Juan Gonzalez
Hi, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.
- [14:05]
Amy Goodman
Donald Trump is meeting with world leaders at the G7 summit in France, with much of the world's focus on Iran. On Sunday, the US And Iran signed a framework agreement extending the cease fire by 60 days. Iran's agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while the US Will lift its naval blockade. The text of the agreement, though, has not yet been released. According to Iran, the deal calls for a permanent and immediate secession of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. But Israel, which is not a party to the agreement, says it plans to keep troops in parts of southern Lebanon. Earlier today, President Trump spoke about Israel at the G7 we've had a very effective relationship.
- [14:51]
Juan Gonzalez
Without us, without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did. I've had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon. Now, I'm not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah. They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal. And that's the deal with Iran.
- [15:31]
Amy Goodman
We're joined now by Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was in the news himself last week after the right wing online outlet the Free Press published an article claiming the State Department's opened a probe into Trita Parsi that could lead to his deportation. The Free Press was founded by Barry Weiss, who's now editor in chief of CBS News. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But let's begin with the US Iran agreement. Trita, your latest article is headlined the next 72 hours will tell us whether Israel Plans to Kill Trump's Peace. Explain.
- [16:12]
Trita Parsi
As we have seen, the Israelis did everything they could last minute to make sure that the deal would collapse by escalating matters and going into Beirut itself. There had been Skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel for the days prior to that. At the end of the day, the Israelis are invading Lebanon, of course, so that's not necessarily surprising. But both sides have managed to keep it at a level in which there wouldn't be any major escalation and no violation of the red line that both Iran and the United States had put forward, which was no more attacks on Beirut. But just hours before they were supposed to be a signing or an electronic signing of this agreement, the Israelis struck at Beirut. Which is part of the reason why Trump now, for several days, have been lashing out at the Israelis. Because it's very clear to him ultimately now that the Israelis are trying to destroy this deal. And they will continue to try. They did so with the Obama deal. They will do so with this one as well. And it will require persistent, consistent pressure by Trump on the Israelis in order to hold them back.
- [17:15]
Juan Gonzalez
Trump is now over in Europe at the G7 meeting. The European leaders are facing increasing opposition among their own people to the continued wars, Israel's war on Gaza. Two million Italians went on a general strike in solidarity with Palestine last fall. A 24 hour general strike in Italy just less than a month ago on May 18. What do you sense is happening among the European governments?
- [17:49]
Trita Parsi
Well, the European governments are under tremendous pressure from their own populations because they're pursuing foreign policies, at least when it comes to Gaza, but also to a certain extent, other places that are just not in line with what the public state want. They're tired of these wars. They don't want to see the support for a genocide. Even in countries such as Germany, that has been so supportive of Israel beyond any other European state, the public is 60, 65% plus in opposition to Israel's handling on all of this. And at the same time, you have this tension with the United States that is going its own ways. And the Europeans finally realizing that they have to have far more strategic autonomy than they have had before, they have put all of their eggs in the American security basket, made themselves so dependent on the United States, so dependent on NATO, that they have lost the ability to pursue an independent path. An independent path that in many ways actually was good for the United States itself. The Germany of 2003 that stood up against the Iraq war, that spoke out against it, led the opposition to that war, is a Europe that the United States needs, because we do tend to have bad ideas over here every once in a while. And we need a partner that can tell us that this is not a path we should take. But Europe has lost that ability. It's made itself so dependent on the United States that it has no longer the maneuverability to push back. And this is something that the European publics ultimately are not happy about because they're seeing the consequences of that vacillation of Europe as a continent.
- [19:18]
Juan Gonzalez
And what do you make of the continuing disagreements voiced publicly between the Iranian government and the US Government over what this deal entails? And it's supposedly going to be about a two page memorandum which obviously can't deal with all the complexity of a deal of this type.
- [19:36]
Trita Parsi
Look, both sides are going to try to frame this as a win. And I think both sides also have media apparatuses in their countries that have put forward versions of this deal that may not be actually accurate. I do suspect that some of the hardline media in Iran has actually put forward ideas or versions of this deal that are not the accurate ones in order to make sure that the expectations are exaggerated so that the final meet never meets them. But this is a way, because of the effort from the hardliners in Iran to sabotage, and we have similar problems here on the United States as well. But this is being compounded by the fact that the actual text is not released. As long as you don't have an official text that is released, there is going to be speculation that gives opportunities for those who want to sabotage it to do exactly that.
- [20:28]
Amy Goodman
Trita, you wrote a book, Losing an Enemy, Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy about the Iran deal that Obama struck. Can you talk about whether there's any real difference between what is agreed about now and back then in 2015?
- [20:50]
Trita Parsi
Again, we don't know the details yet to be able to make an accurate estimation of what the differences and similarities are. I suspect that there will be plenty of similarities and some differences as well. If, for instance, the deal does contain the same elements that was on the table back in February before the war, when the Omanis were mediating this issue, then there are going to be some elements that are frankly going to be stronger than the jcpoa. For instance, that the Iranians would not be stockpiling any enriched uranium at all and they would potentially even pause enrichment for several years. The JCPOA did not contain that. On the other hand, the JCPO had remarkable inspections regimes. We don't know what inspections regime this deal will have because the IEA has not been involved in these negotiations. In the jcpoa, they were deeply, deeply involved. Another very interesting difference that I think we already now can see, at least rhetorically, is that the Obama administration was very careful only to sell that deal as a nuclear agreement. They never tried to point to a possibility of a better future between the US And Iran, a better relationship, a transformation of that relationship. If it were to happen, it would be an added bonus, but not something that was at the center of the deal, or not even something that was designed to be the ambition of the deal. The Trump administration has done this completely reversely. They're going out there and very ferociously arguing that this can be a peace deal, that this can be a full transformation, not just of US Iran relations, but the entire regional context as well. Now, whether they have the political power and capital and means to make real out of that promise remains to be seen. But it is an ambition that the Obama administration did not even express and never even called their deal a peace deal. And in some ways, I think this is a positive development because we do need to finally get over this US Iran enmity. Otherwise, if this continues, but it just has a nuclear component to it, that enmity eventually is going to lead to either the collapse of that nuclear deal or some other form of confrontation between the two countries. And I think it would be better for both states if they actually could put that enmity behind them.
- [23:04]
Amy Goodman
Trita, I also want to ask you about the recent Free Press article headlined will the US Deport Trita Parsi? The outlet claim the Trump administration's weighing whether to revoke your green card. You've described it as a hit piece designed to trigger your deportation. Of course. Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, who's now the editor in chief of CBS News.
- [23:31]
Trita Parsi
Yeah, thank you, Amy, for allowing me to correct the record on this one. I wrote about it on my substack as well. Afterwards, only hours after this hit piece came out, the State Department itself took the unusual move of coming out and denying it and saying that they have no plans to deport me, at least not for now, they said so. There was a caveat there. But nevertheless, this was a very unusual move because usually the State Department doesn't comment on these things at all. But I think what happened, and this is my theory, I don't have smoking gun evidence for it, but I do believe that there were elements inside the State Department that wanted to move in this direction. They had been pressured by people like Laura Loomer for months now, tweeting that they should be deporting me, and they thought that this hit piece would help move things forward. But I think, frankly, it backfired because not only was there a major backlash publicly against this. There was also opposition within the Trump administration against this move, and it's part of the reason why the State Department came out so quickly and so unusually to deny this.
- [24:36]
Amy Goodman
Rita Parsi, thanks so much for being with us. Executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible State Crafts will link to your substack article Headlines. So they tried to deport me. Up next, as Space X founder Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire, we'll go to South Texas, where environmental groups have sued to block a land swap that would give Space x more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge. Stay with us.
- [25:38]
Juan Gonzalez
So we're not some animals.
- [25:44]
Becca Hinojosa
You're keeping a cage
- [25:49]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
keeping us down, paying as minimum wage. I'd like to see each one of
- [26:00]
Amy Goodman
you just shout, give up your father. Minimum wage. By Laura Mary Carter this is democracy now, democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Juan Gonzalez is in Chicago. On Friday, Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire. As his spaceflight, Internet, satellite, social media and a conglomerate, Space X went public in the largest IPO in stock market history. Musk formed Space X in 2002 with a goal of colonizing Mars. The company is based in South Texas in a city controlled by Elon Musk known as Starbase, which SpaceX has used for rocket launches since 2014. Environmental and conservation groups recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a land swap that would give SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge in South Texas. We go now to Becca Hinojosa, co founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, part of a lawsuit against the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service, which approved the land swap. Becca, thanks so much for joining us from South Texas. Explain what this lawsuit is all about.
- [27:43]
Becca Hinojosa
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on Democracy Now. Last week we were a part of a coalition that filed a lawsuit to block the US Fish and Wildlife Service from giving SpaceX space and Elon Musk more than 700 acres of public land to expand the dangerous rocket facility and to continue their unnecessary rocket launches. The lawsuit was filed by center for Biological Diversity. And let me make it clear, SpaceX built its massive facility and company town called Starbase on top of wetlands and in the middle of a major wildlife corridor. This was a pristine beach that's next to thousands of acres of protected wildlife habitat for threatened and endangered species like the ocelot, the aplomato falcon, sea turtles and migratory birds. There should never be a SpaceX rocket facility or any kind of industrial facility in this area. SpaceX has already burned down dozens of acres of wildlife habitat, is dumping polluted water on our beach, has sent rocket debris into our communities, into communities in Mexico. And these rocket launches have disrupted numerous airplane flights over the years. We've been outspoken about the dangers and risks of SpaceX in our community for over 10 years now, and we will continue to do so.
- [29:13]
Juan Gonzalez
And Becca, if you could talk a little bit more about these, especially these rocket explosions. We're talking about an area of the United States, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, that's overwhelmingly Latino and Mexican American, include some of the poorest counties in the country, yet they're being subjected to these environmental impacts.
- [29:36]
Becca Hinojosa
That's correct. My community is majority Latin brown, indigenous, mostly an immigrant community. Right now, Musk is testing his Starship super heavy rocket, the largest rocket in human history in our community. Elon Musk is using our impoverished community as his laboratory to blow up dangerous experimental SpaceX rockets. And truthfully, his rocket testing sounds like a bomb going off. I can hear the sonic booms, I can feel the earthquakes in my apartment about 20 miles away from the launch pad. What it feels like is the SpaceX rocket testing is like Elon Musk bombing us.
- [30:23]
Juan Gonzalez
And could you talk a little more about this city he's created, Starbase, basically for his employees.
- [30:32]
Becca Hinojosa
Yeah. So last year, Elon Musk established his own company town on our beach called Starbase, where those in charge of Starbase have direct ties to SpaceX. It's clear that Starbase is acting only in the interests of SpaceX. For example, SpaceX will buy land and Starbase will annex it. And Starbase, Elon Musk's company town, has essentially militarized our pristine beach. They have a lot of surveillance, they have a lot of police activity, they've made our beach feel very unwelcome, they actively deter people away and they close the highway to the beach.
- [31:19]
Amy Goodman
I want to go to Elon Musk speaking on Friday.
- [31:27]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all, to be clear. In fact, I told people this, I said, look, we're probably going to fail, but you know, should give it a try because if we don't, if there's not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space faring civilization. And that's what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction and create an exciting, inspiring future for everyone.
- [32:01]
Amy Goodman
So that's Elon Musk, if you can respond to that. Becca Hinojosa and also simply to Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire. Making its debut on Wall Street, Space X in the largest IPO in history. From your vantage point there on the border in Texas,
- [32:27]
Becca Hinojosa
no one should invest in Musk's corporations because it would mean expanding his toxic Data center, his SpaceX operations, thereby making Musk's sacrifice zone of black and brown communities even bigger. We're urging everyone to stop Elon Musk's sacrifice zone and to defund Elon Musk.
- [32:49]
Juan Gonzalez
And this idea of one man having a net worth now as a first trillionaire of nearly half of the people on the planet, the 46% of the poorest inhabitants of planet Earth,
- [33:07]
Becca Hinojosa
you know, it's absolutely disgusting. And that's why our community has been protesting, resisting SpaceX's colonization of our community for, for over 10 years now. But we can't be the only community speaking out. We're urging everyone to take action and mobilize to stop, you know, Elon Musk's obscene wealth.
- [33:31]
Amy Goodman
Let's go through some of the proposals. Last month, Space X filed a proposal seeking to build a 6 mile long, 16 inch pipeline to bring in massive quantities of natural gas from the port of Brownsville to Starbase to fuel its massive new rocket Starship. The underground pipeline would cross protected wetlands, lands and wild refuge. And Space X is discussing the potential purchase of 136,000 acres of land owned by Exxon Mobil on an undeveloped stretch of Louisiana's Gulf Coast. That project's environmental footprint would dwarf the already significant Starbase operation. Becca Inajosa, if you could comment.
- [34:24]
Becca Hinojosa
Yes, Communities all across the country are reaching out to us, asking, you know, how do we resist Elon Musk's colonization? That's what we need to do, is we need to work together, all of these communities to resist. Elon Musk is also pushing forth with a massive land grab in our region. Right now they're trying to obtain the 700 acres of wildlife habitat, but they're also trying to take over another 7,000 acres of our Boca Chica Beach. What we need to do is work together to stop this.
- [35:06]
Juan Gonzalez
Becca, what's been the response of your elected officials, especially your local elected officials, I can understand, while the Governor Abbott and the top state officials would be supportive of Musk, but what about the local officials?
- [35:24]
Becca Hinojosa
All of our local officials are ignoring community concerns. They're ignoring community members speaking up about their homes shaking, about their windows cracking, their home foundations cracking because of SpaceX rocket launches. We've seen elected officials take money from SpaceX here and lobby in favor of more bills that benefit SpaceX. You know, which is why we need to, you know, mobilize together because our elected officials are selling us out to Elon Musk.
- [36:01]
Amy Goodman
Becky Njosa co founded the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, the group part of a coalition that just sued the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service for giving 700 acres of public land to SpaceX. Becca is an environmental community advocate with the grassroots collaborative Another Gulf is Possible Coming up. President Trump's name has been removed from the exterior of the Kennedy center for the Performing Arts following a judge's order, but the battle over the Kennedy center goes on. We'll speak to two former Kennedy center programmers who were fired by the Trump administration, including the renowned artist and playwright Mark Bamuti. Joseph, stay with us.
- [36:58]
Trita Parsi
No time for breezy no time for
- [37:02]
Amy Goodman
arguments there's no time for love like
- [37:07]
Trita Parsi
now
- [37:10]
Amy Goodman
there's no time in the bardo no time in the end between no
- [37:17]
Juan Gonzalez
time for love like now where did
- [37:24]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
this all begin to change the lockdown
- [37:28]
Amy Goodman
memories can't sustain this glistening hanging free
- [37:33]
Juan Gonzalez
from
- [37:37]
Amy Goodman
I turned away from the glorious
- [37:40]
Juan Gonzalez
light
- [37:43]
Amy Goodman
I turned my head and cried Whatever waiting means in this new place I am waiting for you
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Juan Gonzalez
there's no
- [38:02]
Amy Goodman
time for damage no time for undecided no time for love like now no time for love like now Michael Stife and Aaron Destner performing at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary event, the Riverside Church in New York. This is democracy now. Democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We're today broadcasting from Belfast in Northern Ireland. Juan Gonzalez is in Chicago. President Trump's name has been removed letter by letter from the exterior of the Kennedy center for the Performing Arts following a judge's order. But a massive tarp remains in place covering up the center's name without Trump. Workers remove Trump's name at around 3am on Saturday, the Kennedy Center's board, which was handpicked by Trump, voted to add Trump's name to the center late last year. But Congress never approved the name change. U.S. district Judge Christopher Cooper issued the order to remove Trump's name. Cooper wrote, quote, the Kennedy Center's organic statute makes crystal clear that the center is to be named for President Kennedy and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the board's unilateral say so Congress gave the Kennedy center its name and only Congress can change it, unquote. The battle over the Kennedy Center's name comes amidst a Broader push by Trump to overhaul the famed institution. In February, Trump announced plans to entirely close the Kennedy center for two years beginning in July, supposedly for renovations. But a judge has blocked the center's closure. Before Trump announced the renovations, dozens of artists and organizations, including the San Francisco Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company, pulled out of performances after Trump appointed himself chair of the center. We're joined now by two former Kennedy center programmers who were fired. Mallory Miller is co founded Hands off the Arts from her job as assistant manager of dance programming at the Kennedy Center. And Mark Bamuti Joseph is a renowned artist, artist and playwright who is fired from his role as vice president and artistic director of the Kennedy Center Social Impact Initiative of March. He was fired in March 2025. Mark Bemouth Joseph, let's begin with you. Your response to the demand and the actual removal of Trump's name from the Kennedy center and the judge ruling is it cannot be closed or renovated the way he had planned.
- [41:27]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
First of all, good morning and thanks for having me. Thanks for having us. I guess I would say that I have, I have lots of feelings. I have three primary responses. The first is intimate and visceral. The feeling of the reversal of a particular defilement of a national memorial and the striking of a person's name who has contracted the American horizon. Whether it's the defunding of cancer research or the national parks or the Department of Education, having that, that particular person's name above a poet of a president like John F. Kennedy was an affront to us all. And reversing that decision is somewhat emboldening. I would say. My second reaction is more parliamentary. We, the American people, have rarely been afforded the decency of a public conversation or process. You know, you wake up one morning and we've kidnapped a president in Venezuela. You wake up one morning and we're at war with Iran. There were no procedural protocols in the affixing of this person's name on a national memorial. And so, you know, led by Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, this does feel like a small victory for the rule of law. Then I would say that my third response is more macroeconomic and conceptual. This is an institution that' sthis past fiscal year was afforded $260 million by Congress. It's a $250 million annual budget. When functioning at at its highest level. The retraction of that money from the national economy and from the cultural economy is really striking in and of itself. But there is something that vibrates a little bit higher than that, and that is the economy of Joy, the economy of inspiration, the courage economy. And artists are the primary architects of, of a post fear economy. And so when you remove the Kennedy center as a centerpiece from the creative ecosystem in terms of that kind of capital, I'd be remiss to not mention the victory of the New York Knicks and the joy emanating from that city. Think about the economic fallout or think about the economic repercussions of 10 million New Yorkers being happy at once. Now think about what it's like when you leave a show, how many inspired people leave a performance of dance or a performance of theater. What radiates, what emanates out of that space? Artists are the architects of a post fear economy. And hopefully this is part of the restoration of that jewel in the post fear economy being reinstituted for the American public.
- [44:55]
Juan Gonzalez
And Mark, I wanted to ask you the importance, if you could talk about the importance of the Kennedy center to artists and performers around the country and also what its status is right now. With Trump claiming he wants to close it for two years, yet a judge ordering it to be kept open. What is actually happening in terms of the Kennedy center especially, how do you see it over the next year or two?
- [45:25]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
Well, the Kennedy center is an important space as a living memorial to the nation's 35th president. It is a memorial like the Washington Monument is a memorial, like, like so many of these national treasures. So it continues to endure, I think, in that space, although it has now been politicized in a way that reverts it to a kind of marginal space, I think, in terms of the public imagination, in terms of its space as a pillar for artists in the creative economy. The Kennedy center is a North Star. The highest honor that we give in the United States for living performing artists are the Kennedy Honors. So what is it that we aspire to? My belief is that even with all its conflicts, the aspiration of America is equity. And artists name that, they color that for all of us. So the restoration of the space is extraordinarily important, just as it's important to have, you know, for a child to have maybe a grade to reach for or an athlete to have a championship to reach for. A place at the Kennedy Center, A place on the Kennedy center stage is one of those spaces, I think, in the American imagination and for an artist's career trajectory. At this point, curators tend to program years in advance. So it's very rare that you pick up the phone and say, can you get on my stage on Friday? You pick up the phone and say, can you get on my stage in the year 2028, all of that infrastructure has been severely compromised and I don't know who the curatorial staff is at this point. And I'm not sure how we begin to restore the trust of the artist community to see the Kennedy center as a place to come back to and inspire audiences locally, nationally and globally.
- [47:48]
Juan Gonzalez
I'd like to bring in Mallory Miller to the conversation, co founder of of Hands off the Arts. You were fired from your job as assistant manager of dance programming at the Kennedy center in August of 2025. Your group's been protesting weekly outside the Kennedy Center. Your reaction to the latest developments and if you could talk about this mass purging that has occurred of people at the Kennedy Center.
- [48:16]
Mallory Miller
Yeah, and thank you again for having us and thank you, Bamuti, for sharing those thoughts. I I could not agree with you more. Hands off the Arts was out there on Friday. We've been out there every Friday rallying and protesting the authoritarian overreach into arts and culture in our country at the Kennedy Center. And we were there on Friday and it was a thing of joy. We are so happy to see that name finally come down off the building. It really does mean something. We have been fighting for it since it went up in December. But I want to be very clear that this is just the first step in rebuilding the trust that has been lost. The Kennedy center has been impoverished by this administration and by the chairman who is Donald Trump, and he is still the boss there. Yes, I was fired in August and alongside of my Gantt programming colleagues and many other people have been fired. But the firings are still happening. They're still attacking the workers recently firing the box office employees as in a violation of their union contract.
- [49:40]
Amy Goodman
I just want to talk about some of the artists who have said no and ask you, Mallory Miller, about out Hands off the Arts and your protests there at the Kennedy Center. Philip Glass, the Washington National Opera, Bella Fleck, Stephen Schwartz, composer of Wicked, the New York City Ballet, Renee Fleming, Martha Graham Dance Company Hamilton, the hugely popular musical was set to be staged at the Kennedy center to Honor the the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But after Trump was appointed chair, Lin Manuel Miranda, the show's creator, said the show would not engage with the institution while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. Interesting to see what will happen now. Alvin Ailey, American Dance Theatre San Francisco Ballet Let freedom ring for the first time time in 20 years an annual concert celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King featuring artists like Aretha Franklin And Leslie Odom was held not at the Kennedy center, but at the Howard Theatre a few miles away. And the Brentano Quartet with Shin Yun Huang. Very interesting lists of artists. One, do you think that Trump announced, announced that they were going to be renovating the Kennedy center, which is why they closed it, that it was really that so many artists had said no, there were not enough artists to be at the Kennedy center and what Hands off the Arts is doing. Mallory,
- [51:21]
Mallory Miller
I said impoverished before. And I think what I mean by that is both the financial side of things. I don't know how the organization is still open right now, given everything that's happened, but also the impoverishment of the arts. There are no arts right now at the Kennedy center or scant few. Millennium Stage, which is a program that used to be a part of the Social Impact department, is still running and the National Symphony Orchestra is still playing or they played their last concert last weekend. But there are not shows. And you are right to bring up all of those artists who have withdrawn their participation from the Kennedy center as a result of this. I have always believed that the community and the power of people here in Washington and across the country is a vital piece of the fight here for the Kennedy Center. And so what Hands up the Arts has been doing has been gathering that community. We have gathered hundreds of people for protests, including last week, including in December, and including the very day that Judge Cooper gave us his ruling. It was meant to be a vigil for John F. Kennedy's memorial on the occasion of his 109th birthday, but it quickly turned into a celebration because of the great news about the stoppage of the closure and the idea that the name would finally come off the building. And we're still gathering that community. We still have our Friday protests every single Friday at 6:30pm at the steps of the Kennedy Center. And our campaign is to stop the closure and to save the jobs. And we need our community to show up and be in that space with us to prove our power to the board of trustees, to the president, to continue to keep a spotlight on this issue.
- [53:27]
Juan Gonzalez
I wanted to ask Mark Bamuti, Joseph, you were fired as well from your role as vice president and artistic director of the Kennedy Center Social Impact Initiative. Could you talk about that firing and the work that you were doing that was so vital to the Kennedy Center?
- [53:48]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
Yeah, we were among the first let go, which I kind of hold as a badge of honor, if I'm being honest. Our threat to the incoming regime was that we were doing impact investment work in the creative economy, you see shows, you see output. Many of us are very familiar with something when it hits the stage. But everyone needs a process. Everyone needs research and development, time, resources and infrastructure. And the social impact department, which was really centered around and the idea that the 14th Amendment guarantees for all of us access to the impulse of creativity. You cannot be enfranchised as an American if you do not have access to inspiration. So how do we invest in that long term? My feeling as the first vice president of social impact, specifically, my feeling was that it was the Kennedy Center's responsibility to create protocols and vectors for investment in artists, not when they're on stages, but in the spaces beforehand. And to widen the cultural radius as expansively as possible, to not only invest in local cultural organizations and cultural artists, but also to do work like the Cartography Project, which was an initiative that invested in black composers all over the country who were given the mandate to create works of opera and symphony that were inspired by black dignity. The Cartography Project was an initiative that literally mapped black dignity from Houston to Seattle, from New Orleans to Ohio. That was one of more than 20 different programs. We had an annual budget exceeding $3 million that we invested in the infrastructure, in the constitutionally guaranteed infrastructure of creativity, and towards an equitable horizon across the country.
- [56:25]
Amy Goodman
Very quickly, Vermouthy, I want to get your response to these remarks by President Trump last year about the Kennedy Center.
- [56:33]
Juan Gonzalez
We don't need woke at the Kennedy Center. We don't need. Some of the shows were terrible. They're a disgrace that they were even put on. So I'll be there until such time as it gets to be running right.
- [56:45]
Amy Goodman
And we don't need woke at the Kennedy Center. A lot of jokes have been made showing pictures of President Trump falling asleep in all different places, including his Cabinet meetings. But, Bamouti, your response in these last 30 seconds.
- [57:02]
Mark Bamuti Joseph
We don't need algae in the reflecting pool. What we do need is a Department of Education. What we do need are funds for cancer research. What we do need is our national parks open. And what we do need is a home for art artists who authors the American imagination more than artists. I would much rather be awake in an inspired America than asleep at the wheel like this authoritarian president,
- [57:34]
Amy Goodman
Mark Mavouti. Joseph, we want to thank you for being with us. Renowned artist and playwright fired from his role as vice president, artistic director of the Kennedy Center's social media social impact initiative last year. And we want to thank Mallory Miller, also a programming officer at the Kennedy center, fired last year, co founder of Now Hands off the Arts. That does it for our show. We are in Belfast, Northern Ireland, because tonight at the Queen's film theatre at 6:30, the documentary about Democracy Now. Steal the Story, Please. Will be the opening documentary at Docks, Ireland. Thanks so much to everyone here at Northern Visions tv, community TV for Belfast and Northern Ireland. Dave Heigman and Dean Hagan and Dave Caskey and Jamie Finland and Karen o', Row, Eamonn Higgins, Shawna Lawson, Simon Gallagher, Jeff Williams and Alva Lynch. I'll be back on Thursday headed to Vermont. We'll be in Burlington at the Vermont International Film Festival, then on to Brattleboro and St. Johnsbury and Montpelier. Look forward to seeing folks in Vermont. I'm Amy Goodman in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with Juan Gonzalez.