Trump Pushes Back Amid Kennedy Center Dispute

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast: "Trump Pushes Back Amid Kennedy Center Dispute"

Date: June 13, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas (MeidasTouch Network)

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Overview

In this episode, the Meiselas brothers dissect former President Donald Trump’s latest public meltdown amid the contentious removal of his name from the Kennedy Center. The episode highlights Trump’s attempts to circumvent a court-ordered directive, broader implications of his ongoing legal and political troubles, and the satirical unraveling of the priorities and narratives of Trump’s administration and media allies. Through their signature combination of banter, sarcasm, and fervent support of democracy, the brothers provide in-depth news analysis, contextual political commentary, and memorable critique.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Kennedy Center Cover-Up Scandal

• Context & Timeline: Trump was ordered by a court to remove his name from the Kennedy Center, with a deadline of 11:59 pm.
• Trump’s Response: Instead of complying, Trump’s construction crew put up a tarp at 1 am, attempting to obscure the removal and blatantly violating the order.
• Analysis:
  • Ben paints a picture of Trump’s declining influence and psychological state, emphasizing both the literal and symbolic “covering up” of his misdeeds.
  • The hosts call out the futility and public embarrassment Trump's actions invite.

“What a coward he is, wanting to hide the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center. But to me, I think it makes it so much worse. It draws so much attention to it.” – Ben (02:59)

2. Visual Symbolism & Social Media Reactions

• Scene Setting: Ben references visuals from reporter Benjamin Alvarez, highlighting the scaffolding, curtains, and ironic double rainbow coinciding with the court order.
• Juxtaposition: Trump tries to appear tough on social media, boasting about violent military action, while simultaneously hiding from the Kennedy Center humiliation.

“Just look at that beautiful rainbow right there and just think about how cowardly and pathetic he is.” – Ben (05:25)

3. Military Posturing & Braggadocio

• Trump’s Claims: Trump posts about a U.S. military strike against Nino Guerrero, an alleged terrorist leader, attempting to project strength.
• Host’s Take: Ben expresses skepticism, noting Trump’s tendency to exaggerate and distract from his personal embarrassments.

4. Cultural Satire — The “Golden Statues” Priority

• Mockery of Priorities: Ben sarcastically highlights the administration’s focus on re-gilding art statues and the Triumphal Arch rather than tackling substantive issues like healthcare and jobs.

“They say to me, 'Ben, we don't want health care... what we want is the re-gilding of the massive art war sculpture near a triumphal arch.' ...being sarcastic, okay. This regime's priorities are so sick and criminal.” – Ben (06:40)

5. UFC Fight at the White House & Safety Concerns

• Trump Era Spectacle: Reports on the “Freedom250 UFC fight” during which the Department of War debuts a TV ad at the White House.
• Unintended Consequences:
  • Light beams from the UFC ring disrupt pilots at Reagan National Airport.
  • The newly constructed reflecting pool is already becoming algae-infested, echoing previous failures.

6. Fox News and Regime Media Response

• Defensive Spin: Treasury Secretary Besant appears visibly uncomfortable on Fox, struggling to justify economic woes and government priorities.
• Media Ally Narrative: Jesse Waters attempts to reframe Trump’s initiatives as cultural necessity, implicating liberals in the alleged “decline of Western civilization.”

“You want people walking around in public spaces with grime.” – Jesse Waters (12:43)

7. Foreign Policy Fallout — The Iran “Deal”

• Trump’s Diplomacy Claim: Trump touts a new deal with Iran, claiming victory.
• Reality Check:
  • Ben analyzes how Iran seems to benefit most, securing financial windfalls and strategic advantages.
  • Observes regional shifts in allegiance away from the US, toward Iran and China.
  • Hosts clarify they're glad for an end to conflict but cast Trump's posturing as hollow.

8. CENTCOM’s Questionable Updates

• Drone Attacks & Strait of Hormuz: U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reports on drone intercepts, but the hosts deride the portrayal as hollow propaganda, juxtaposed with Trump’s inability to manage even his own properties.

9. Legacy & Personal Decline

• Host’s Assessment: Ben reflects on Trump’s worsening isolation, declining health, legacy of disgrace, and permanent infamy.

“You are hated. You are the most hated president in American history, one of the most hated human beings in world history... the legacy of shame. The legacy of a loser.” – Ben (15:15)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Tarp and Cowardice:
  “He was so damn cowardly... wanting to hide the removal of his name... makes it so much worse.” – Ben (02:45)

• On Misplaced Priorities in Government:
  “What we want is the re-gilding of the massive art war sculpture near a triumphal arch.” – Ben (06:37; sarcasm)

• On Media’s Defense of Trump:
  “It’s designed in the neoclassical style, which liberals hate... You want people walking around in public spaces with grime.” – Jesse Waters (12:15–12:43)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:28 — Ben sets up the Kennedy Center name-removal cover-up scandal
• 05:25 — Video and symbolism of the scaffolding and double rainbow
• 06:37 — Satire on the administration’s focus on gilded statues
• 09:10 — Reports of UFC light beams blinding airport pilots
• 10:30 — Treasury Secretary Besant defends administration on Fox
• 12:00 — Jesse Waters reframes Trump’s architectural projects as civilizational
• 13:00 — Ben details the new Iran deal and its regional consequences
• 15:15 — Ben’s summation of Trump’s personal and historical legacy

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Tone and Style

The episode features the brothers’ trademark blend of biting sarcasm, rapid-fire news breakdown, and uncompromising pro-democracy commentary. Their critique is often peppered with humor and irony (“painting the algae pool blue”), but the underlying message is serious: accountability, transparency, and a call-out of government and media failures.

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For listeners seeking a passionate, progressive, and satirical take on the weekly political circus, this episode is both rich in political analysis and memorable for its unapologetic skewering of both Trump-era antics and the complicity of regime-friendly media.

Transcript

[Ben]

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[Jesse Waters]

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[Ben]

Donald Trump was having a meltdown. At 1am he made the construction workers outside of the Kennedy center build a scaffolding so he can put a tarp to cover up the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center. It basically took all day and at 1am they put this tarp to cover up the removal of Trump's name. It was in violation of the court order which said that Trump had to take his name off that Kennedy Center Center. The vandalism had to end by 11:59. Trump violated the court order because he was so damn cowardly. But I want to set the scene for you right now, right as Donald Trump is about to turn 80 like his father Fred, he's exhibiting some of those same signs, right? Sickly, all alone, cognitively physically declining paranoia setting in. All alone right now. And what a coward he is wanting to hide the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center. But to me, I think it makes it so much worse. It draws so much attention to it. The regime that covers up everything, they cover up the Epstein files, they cover up all of his fraud, they cover up and lie about everything. Covering up the removal of the vandalism where he put his name on the Kennedy Center. And this is going on on his birthday weekend. Can I you what was taking place right here? Let me show you. As the workers were adding the curtain, obstructing the review, this was. And they were doing this at 1:44am of Trump's name from the Kennedy Center. Let me show this to you.

[Jesse Waters]

You didn't use the cart to put it up, you coward.

[Ben]

Here, I'll show you. As workers continue to deploy this curtain just so you can see it. Let's play it.

[Jesse Waters]

How's the steel cover up for a pedophile? Yeah. Is Trump now embarrassed about his name on this building? The judge said to take it down, not to cover it up. Take it down. Take it down.

[Ben]

Now I'll show you what the scene was. Benjamin Alvarez got some video of it right at 11pm before the curtains went up, when they were building this weird scaffolding. And we were thinking, what are they building that scaffolding for? Because when they were adding it, they were using the cherry pickers to put Trump's name up. But now they seem to be building the scaffolding. So that's what they were doing. Here's what Alvarez posted. Let's play it. But we did notice that earlier in the day there was this double rainbow at the Kennedy center moments after a storm hit. And the court ruling confirming that Trump's name was to be taken off. Just look at that beautiful rainbow right there and just think about how cowardly and pathetic he is. You know, he wanted a post yesterday about his latest murder. He puts his ISIS style video and he claims he killed Nino Guerrero. He goes the Trend de Aragua lead, a Nino Guerrero, knowing Trump, he probably killed a bunch of innocent people too. And I think we can't just accept his word that he killed Nino Guerrero, the infamous leader of trend. But here's what he wants to post to act all tough earlier in the day, but he's too cowardly to even let the public see his name get removed from the Kennedy Center. He goes at my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero, the infamous leader of Trend Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty terrorist organizations before I returned to office. Joe Biden. Joe Biden on doing the Joe Biden thing. You pathetic loser. Too scared that you have to cover up your name being removed from the Kennedy Center. Look at this pathetic loser. Also posted earlier in the day this re gilding of the massive Arts of War sculpture located between the Lincoln Memorial and the site of the Triumphal Arch. Yeah, we're going to tear that down also the Triumphal Arch, and you're not going to be able to put a curtain curtain over that. It rapidly continues. The sculptures will be fully re gilded by July 3rd. Thanks, Donald. Because when I speak to my fellow Americans, I say, folks, what do you want? They go, ben, we don't want health care. We don't want affordable gas or affordable groceries. We don't want jobs with dignity. We don't want to be able to have good education. We don't want to be able to pay our rent. Ben. They say to me, what we want is the reed gilding of the massive art war sculpture near a triumphal arch. They say to me, I go, I, I said, I know. I said, why didn't Joe Biden, why didn't he re gild those scope being sarcastic, okay, this regime's priorities are so sick and criminal. But you know what? I know the American people have had it. I know that everyone's disgusted. Donald Trump's post the Sunday night during the historic Freedom250 UFC fight at the White House, the Department of War will debut a new TV ad. Oh, really, Donald? You're gonna do a new TV ad on the UFC fight? By the way, the Midas Touch exclusively reported how pilots who are landing in Reagan National Airport are now filing complaints because this UFC ring that's emitt all of these like light beams in the sky are blinding the pilots who are trying to land in Reagan Airport. Also, on the topic of things backfiring in Donald Trump's face was he builds ufc. You know that reflecting pool. I've reported on this before and I predicted this was going to happen. Algae infested already. Duh. Of course it's going to be infested with algae. The water source is still the Potomac Basin. If you're bringing the water from the same location. That's where the algae is coming from. It's not like you're getting the water from the drinking water. That was the issue in 2012. They changed the water source to the Potomac Basin. And even when you have a good filtration system, when the water's that low, when you have the heat, when you're bringing in the algae, just little bits of algae can spread and grow and fester and it's hard to stop. And so painting it blue is only going to make the algae look worse. But let's bring in, as Donald Trump was probably crying last night and throwing ketchup everywhere, who do they bring on? Late last night on state regime media, which calls itself Fox. Yeah, they brought in Treasury Secretary Besant. And Besant looks like a deer in headline. I mean, Besant never looks good in these interviews, but Besant right here looks awful. Watch what he says.

[Jesse Waters]

Let's play it at the same time. Mr. Secretary, inflation and the cost of living is weighing on Americans. What can you tell the American people tonight about the light that is there at the end of the tunnel for them on the cost of everyday living? So, Laura, we understand this is a challenging time. And President and the cabinet was with him. We believe that he had to take this opportunity to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon. We will see maybe as soon as this weekend or Monday, we will get on the other side of this. Energy prices will come back down. The energy markets are very well supplied. Oil is already about 25 or 30% off the top. Gasoline is, has come down more than 10%. So I am very confident that the challenging time with gasoline will pass by core inflation, which is real underlying inflation, surprised on the downside, it was only 0.2%. So again, once we get on the other side of this energy pinch, and as you said, Laura, the important thing is that underneath all that, the economy is doing very well.

[Ben]

And then Jesse Waters tried to soothe Donald Trump's ego. At this point, that's as Donald Trump's just losing it. Here's what Jesse Waters had to say. Let me play this clip Water.

[Jesse Waters]

But listen, he is building the ballroom is an architectural masterpiece. It's designed in the neoclassical style, which liberals hate because that was the preferred style of the founders who modeled that style after ancient Greek and Roman architecture. They took all of their philosophy from the ancient Greek and Romans. And so when you see these soaring columns and the noble statuary and the exquisitely designed reflecting pools, when you let that go into disrepair, you're doing that on purpose. You're purposely subverting the greatness of America, the bedrock of Western civilization. You want people to be depressed. You don't want them to feel worthy of having big beautiful things. You want them walking around in public spaces with grime.

[Ben]

And folks, we remember what was going down. We called it that we were hitting tank bottom in a lot of strategic reserve sources. The world was uniting against Donald Trump. Iran was holding its ground. And so yesterday we saw Donald Trump say and the day before that we've got a deal with Iran. And when we've kind of unpacked the deal, it seems like Iran got everything that they wanted. The Islamic regime is in power. They control the Strait of Hormuz. They say they will be charging tolls. We now learn that the UAE already gave them $3 billion. Likely we'll give them another 20 to 30 billion dol the US likely going to put billions into some global or into some Middle east renovation fund which is a way to funnel money to Iran. Iran doesn't even have to talk about its nuclear file until what, 60 days? It pushes the negotiations out. I'm glad the Strait of Hormuz is open. We should never been in this war. Let me be very clear. I'm glad there's a deal and I'm actually glad there's this. I mean, let's get the hell out of there. Let's be very clear and stop these never ending wars. But for Trump's braggadocious and bravado and we're gonna crush them and they're gonna submit. Donald Trump is the biggest loser. Maybe Netanyahu also is the biggest loser in this as well because the whole regional dynamic has now shifted, forming more closer alliances with Iran and China in the region and away from the United States and Israel. But Trump, you got your UFC fight. Maybe there's expected to be storms. 90% chance of thunderstorms on Sunday. Rainbows when Donald Trump's name gets taken off of the Kennedy Center. Thunderstorms during Donald Trump's UFC fight. Although Centcom did publish last night how clownish a Centcom becomes. It's so sad to see Centcom become like this. I say this as a patriotic person. I mean it's sad to see Centcom become like this. CENTCOM announced that Iran launched several one way attack drones at ships last night transiting the Strait of Hormuz earlier this weekend. But the U.S. forces have downed them all and traffic continues to flow unimpeded. What do you mean traffic continues? Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to flow unimpeded. Okay, Absolutely. We sure centcom it flows unimpeded? How utterly ridiculous is this? I mean, look, Donald Trump can't even manage his cafeterias in the Trump properties, right? The Westchester one, the Bedminster one. All of these ones are being cited for health violations right now, one after another. Notice that another report of one of their health violations that they've been cited for. So this is what Donald Trump is up to right now. On what will be the worst birthday of his life. 80 years old, all alone, physically declining, cognitively declining, rotting away, paranoid. This is what you wanted, Donald. This the power that you wanted. You are hated. You are the most hated president in American history, one of the most hated human beings in world history right now. The name Trump will forever live in infamy as a cancer to this world. That is the legacy you pass down to your family. And we will always remember the damage that that name Trump has caused. And we will work generation by generation to ensure that there are never anyone ever like you ever again in a position of power. That's your legacy. The legacy of shame. The legacy of a loser. The legacy of a. A bankrupter. On your birthday, everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our [e-mail] you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only [e-mail].