Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-06-16 Tuesday

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Democracy Now! Tuesday, June 16, 2026

From Belfast, Northern Ireland and Chicago, this is Democracy Now. 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 BB, but now BB has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon. President Trump is pressuring Israel to stop attacking Israel. backing Lebanon after the U.S. and Iran agreed to extend their current ceasefire for 60 days. We'll speak with Trita Parcy 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. 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. 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 artists and playwright Marjorie.

Mark Bermouti Joseph. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.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 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 on frozen while mandating that the U.S. pay around $300 billion for reconstruction costs.

That said the reparations would instead be paid by neighboring Gulf states. This comes as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledged not to abide by the latest ceasefire agreement. between the U.S. and Iran. On Monday, Netanyahu made his first public remarks 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

to acquire nuclear weapons. I can define this as my life's mission. I have upheld it till now, and I will uphold it in the future as well. Earlier today, Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Aravchi 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 Mohammed al-Habil.

He worked at Al-Shefa Hospital. His father says Ahabia was filling water containers on a rooftop with his son, Musa, when the two were blown up in an Israeli air strike. He was on the rooftop with his son. Why did they target him? He hadn't done anything wrong. They targeted him because he is a doctor who works at Al-Shefa Hospital. They knew he is a doctor, and they targeted him.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians in the village of Burkhaz 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 Dear DiBan, where Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to two vehicles and damaged several others. This is Yashir, a 92-year-old Palestinian-American resident of Dear Dubuon, who now religiously. avoided being burned alive. I looked at 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. A Palestinian-American 20-year-old woman has been imprisoned by Israel for about two weeks.

On June 2nd, Israeli soldiers broke down the door of Sanaafi's family home in the occupied West Bank and took her in the middle of the night. Safi's a psychology student at Brzeite University in the occupied West Bank. The Guardian reports at least three other students at Brzeite 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 U.S. 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 Keev to commit to political reforms. Ukrainian president of Lodomir Zelensky's joined leaders of the U.S. and its allies were closed-door meetings on Russia's war in Ukraine as the G7 holds its annual summit in the French town of Vian LeBain. President Trump arrived at the talks Monday, also, on the agenda trade tensions and the U.S. and Israeli wars on Iran and Lebanon. In Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office has ruled Haitian asylum seeker, Daffy Michelle'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 in a significant language barrier when she was released from federal custody to February 27th, unquote. Immigration attorney Joseph Patrick Murphy represents Michelle's family. He spoke with CBS Pittsburgh. She had mental challenges. She was arrested for, at one point, screaming at imaginary people.

and they knew this. They just dumped her in a bus shelter, language barrier, educational barrier, and psychiatric barrier, and left her to fend for herself. The bus shelter, she never figured out how to leap. She sat there for days and ultimately froze to death. An immigrant from Belize

and leading organizer of an ongoing hunger strike at the Adelanto Ice Jail in California has reportedly been deported. The immigrant offenders law center says Kayan Shaquille Suazo was transferred to various detention facilities in Texas and Louisiana without notice before being deported what advocates believe is retaliation for his organizing. His deportation came just days after Suarez spoke out about inhumane conditions at Adelanto 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 Salasasasur, the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, a revered Palestinian community leader. Sarsor has been held at the jail for over two months. The vigil Sunday was attended by Jewish community members, Muslim leaders, and members of Sarsur's family, including his eldest son, Karin. This is Rachel Eidabuff, writer, organizer, and historian at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Since they kidnapped him on March 30th, Sala has been in that detention center in the Clay County Jail.

He has been denied his medical and religious rights. Salah 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 Koran, he was offered a Bible. When he's asked for healthy food, they have offered him pork rinds,

which is just cruelty in action. 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 Trump advisor Stephen Miller, to see, 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 Prete. 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 Kier Starrmer. It will make a huge difference.

It will make our children safer. It will make our children happier. It will give them more time. more security, more freedom to grow up, more opportunity. 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, 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 Democracy Now.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. Abraham's best known work is Manenberg 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, Democracy Now.org. and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman in Belfast, Northern Ireland with Juan Gonzalez and Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. 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 U.S. and Iran signed a framework agreement extending the ceasefire by 60 days. Iran's agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. 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 cessation of hostilities and 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. 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 this Yad Fassar. 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. We're joined now by Trita Parsy, 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 open to 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 U.S.-Iran agreement. Trita, your latest article is headlined. The next 72 hours will tell us whether Israel plans to kill Trump's peace explain 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. 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 18th. What do you sense is happening among the European governments? 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's they 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 publicly 65% plus in opposition to Israel's handling 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 he has no longer than 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. And what do you make of the continuing disagreements voiced publicly between the Iranian government

and the U.S. government of 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? 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 in 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. Treda, you wrote a book, losing an enemy Obama run in 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? 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 contained the same elements that was on the table back in February before the war, when the Umani's 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 JCPO did not contain that. On the other hand, the JCPA had remarkable inspections regimes. We don't know what inspections regime this deal will have because the IEA has been. 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 try to point to a possibility of a better future between the U.S. 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. They 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 formal confrontation between the two countries. And I think it would be better for both states if they actually could put that enmity behind them. Trita, I also want to ask you about the recent free press article headlined, Will the U.S. deport Trita Parsi? The outlet claim the Trump administration's weighing weather to revoke your green card. You've described it as a hit piece designed to trigger your deportation.

Of course, free press founded by Barry Weiss, who's now the editor-in-chief of CBS News. 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 Lumer 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's 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 on. usually to deny this. Rita Parsi, thanks so much for being with us.

Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. We'll link to your substack article headlines so they tried to deport me. Up next, as SpaceX 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 gives SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge. Stay with us. Minimum wage by Laura Mary Carter. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.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 AI conglomerate SpaceX went

public in the largest IPO in stock market history. Musk formed SpaceX in 2002 with the 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 landswap that would give SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge in South Texas. We go now to Becca Inajosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, part of the lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved the land swap. Becca, thanks so much from joining us from South Texas. Explain what this lawsuit

is all about. 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 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from giving SpaceX 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 Oscelot, the Oplomatto 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 and 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, you know, over 10 years now, and we will continue to do so. 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. and yet they're being subjected to these environmental impacts?

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 this SpaceX rocket testing is like Elon Musk bombing us.

And could you talk a little more about this city he's created, Starbase, basically for his employees. Yes. 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. I want to go to Elon Musk speaking on Friday.

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 we 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-bearing 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.

So that's Elon Musk. If you can respond to that, Becca Inochosa, and also simply to Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire, making its debut on Wall Street, SpaceX, in the largest IPO in history, from your vantage point there on the border in Texas. 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. 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?

You know, it's absolutely disgusting. And that's why our community has been protesting, resisting SpaceX's colonization of our community 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. Let's go through some of the proposals. Last month, SpaceX filed a proposal seeking to build a six-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 and wild refuge, and SpaceX is discussing the potential purchase of 100,000, 36,000 acres of land owned by ExxonMobil on an undeveloped stretch of Louisiana's Gulf Coast, that project's environmental footprint would dwarf the already significant star base operation. Becca Inochosa, if you could comment. 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, you know, obtain the 700 acres of wildlife habitat, but they're also trying to take over another 7,000 acres of our bookings. at Chica Beach. You know, what we need to do is work together to stop this. And Becca, what's been the response of your elected officials, your local, especially your local elected officials that can understand while the governor Abbott and the top state

officials would be supportive of most, but what about the local officials? 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, which is why we need to mobilize together because our elected officials are selling us out to Elon Musk. Becca and Rosa 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. Beck 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. No time for breezy. No time for arguments.

There's no time for arguments. time for love like now. There's no time in the barto. No time in the end between. No time for love like now. Where did this all begin to change? The lockdown memories can't sustain this glistening hanging free phone.

I turned away from the glory. like me died I turn my head and cry whatever waiting means in this new place there's no time for dancing no time for undecided no time for love

like now no time for love like now Michael Steif and Aaron Destner performing at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary event, the Riverside Church in New York. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

We are 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 removed Trump's name at around 3 a.m. on Saturday. The Kennedy Center's board, which was ham-picked 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 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 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 and playwright who is fired from his role as vice president and artistic director of the Kennedy Center's social impact initiative of March. He was fired in March 2025. Mark Bamuti 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 it. cannot be closed or renovated the way he had planned.

First of all, good morning, and thanks for having me. Thanks for having us. I guess I would say that 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 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.

And then I would say that my third response is more macroeconomic and conceptual. This is an institution that this past fiscal year was afforded $260 million by Congress. It's a $250 million annual budget when functioning 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 economic. economy of joy, the economy of inspiration, the courage economy. And artists are the primary architects 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. 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 and yet a judge ordering it to be kept open? What is actually happening in terms of the Kennedy Center? And especially how do you see it over the next year or two? 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 so many of the 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 rest 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 stages 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.

I'd like to bring in Mallory Miller to the conversation, co-founder 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. you could talk about this mass herging that has occurred of people at the Kennedy Center. Yeah, and thank you again for having us. And thank you, Bermuti, for sharing those thoughts.

I could not agree with you more. I, you know, 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 dance 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. I just

want to talk about some of the artists who have said no and ask you Mallory Miller about 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 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But after Trump was appointed chair, Lynn 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 Theater, San Francisco Ballet, let freedom ring for the first time in 20 years. 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 Theater a few miles away.

And the Brentano Quartet with Xin Yun Huang, very interesting lists of artists. One do you think that Trump 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? 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 Off 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 6.30 p.m. 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. I wanted to ask Mark Bamuthi Joseph, you were fired as well as from your role as vice president. and artistic director of the Kennedy Center's social impact initiative. Could you talk about that firing and the work that you were doing that was so vital to the Kennedy Center? 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 the idea that the four,

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 Norlands 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. Very quickly, Bumuti, I want to get your response to these remarks by President Trump last year about the Kennedy Center. 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. 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 Bermouti, your response in these last 30 seconds? 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 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. Mark Babuti 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 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 Theater at 630, the documentary about democracy now, steal the story, please, will be the opening documentary at Docs, Ireland. Thanks so much to everyone here at Northern Visions TV, Community TV for Belfast and Northern Ireland, Dave Higman and Dean Hagen and Dave Kassie and Jamie Finland and Karen Obrillahan, Eamann, Shana Lawson, Simon Gallagher, Jeff Williams, and Alva Lynch.

I'll be back on Thursday, headed to Vermont. We'll be in Burlington at the Verlinson. Vermont International Film Festival, then on to Braddellboro and St. John'sbury and Montpelier. Look forward to seeing folks in Vermont. I'm Amy Goodman in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with Juan Gonzalez.