Morning Joe - Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board votes to close building

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

September 16, 2026: 8am — Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board votes to close building To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

President Trump has made more stock trades than all members of Congress combined since returning to office. Wait a second. Could you say that again? I'm confused. All members of the Congress combined. Wait. There's 535 of them. Yeah, there's 500. Are you saying one person has made more stuff? The guy that constantly attacked Nancy Pelosi for her husband.

Her husband making stock trades. This guy has made more stock trades. that every member of Congress combined? Yeah, that's according to a Bloomberg review of financial disclosures. Bloomberg reports Trump and his money managers have made over 28,000 trades in the 17 months. Wait, wait, over 28,000 trades? In the months between his second inauguration and June of this year. That compares with about 22,000 trades reported by all members of Congress,

combined. Of course, most Americans would agree with me that if you're in Congress, you should not be trading stock. The numbers come. What about the way has? A double. The numbers come as Republicans push a ban on congressional stock trading, but the legislation does not apply to the president. Trump has backed the measure saying lawmakers should not profit from insider information. But how many times Willie has he profited from insider information? How many times is he 28,000 times. 28,000 times. He'll invite people over to the White House.

He'll talk about how great their company is. Like, after he's bought their stock. Yeah. And his family has benefited, and he's made more than $2 billion in this term since he arrived a year and a half ago. What is the total for the drain the swamp crowd that the Trump's once called themselves? Wait, is it nowhere around $3, $4 trillion that the Trumps have made off of this so-called public service? Yeah, it's the Trump kids.

It's the Lutnik family. I mean, Susie Watt, Chief of Staff. Her son is profited. Yeah, it is billions at least. I don't know if it's quite that high, but it's an extraordinary amount of number. I was doing some math here, as we were reading this story. I mean, it's $1,600 a month. It works out to nearly 60 stock trades a day, every day since he has taken off.

60 stock trades. So why do you need a Russian oligar? That's more stock trades than I made in my life. Wedding party. 60. The 61st. Yeah, he made more trade in a day than I have in my life. Did you read the Dexter Filkins piece in The New Yorker about Jared Kushner's foreign policy?

Not yet. There's a quote in that piece that is just so aproped this where he says, what the foreign policy of the country is where we were imagining. He's talking about Whitcock and Kushner basically mixing business and diplomacy. And the quote, it says, I know these guys. Someone out, former American official who served in the Middle East says, I know these guys. They go to these meetings and they are doing business right alongside their diplomacy. Okay, enough about the ceasefire.

We have this hotel we want to build. That is the way this is what Trump's presidency is, which is. Enough about getting costs down. I got these stock trades I need to make. And that is when you start talking about corruption, the present, 28,000 trades or however many, more than all of Congress. You talk about his cryptocurrency, his wife's cryptocurrency. You talk about the sons and these defense contracts

and just making just billions of dollars. You teamed that up, Mike, with the fact that Americans are struggling to pay for gas, for diesel, for groceries, for rent, for health care. Boy, that becomes a toxic mix for voters. No, for sure. And you put your finger on exactly what the Democratic through line is going to be, assuming they get House power in January of 2029. They know, as Jonathan said, the president's not going to show up. The president's people are not going to show up for subpoenas.

But anyone who has done business with a family, anyone who has negotiated with this White House, anyone who is given to what donors in D.C. called the matrix of the ballroom and the 250th anniversary and the midterm convention, all of those are going to be targets as a bank shot for this is what the president's doing while you're hurting. All right. So the White House says Trump's portfolio is independently managed by third party institutions and that neither Trump nor his family can influence individual. I like Dell. I like Dell. Come in, Michael, Dell. Oh, I already invested in Michael

Del. By Michael Dell, by Del. I mean, I'm not just picking on Dell. I mean, he's done it with like a thousand. I kind of, it's early. He's only one I can remember, but it's not Del's fault. But it's like everybody that's going in there. He brings him in. And then I don't know if he makes the announcement before or after, but he always makes the announcement and he profits after propping up a company. And that's the thing. It's not like this is happening behind closed doors. It's not a secret at all. He's hyping companies whose stock he has bought and then watch the next day as the market goes up, making money. His sons, as John said, are making tons of money out there. Jared Kushner is getting money from all over the place, including the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Steve Whitkoff,

and his sons. There's just money sloshing all over the place. Coming up, the first lady is, joining the debate over AI in the classroom. Of course, they need to be vigilant as well. But this is our future. And we need to guide them and teach them what is available. If not, they will stay behind. And we need to be the first in the United States to lead. Longtime educator, Dr. Deborah Kenny, joins us with her take

on how artificial intelligence is impacting American children. That conversation is straight. ahead on Morning Joe. Three people were killed. One person hospitalized overnight after a helicopter covering news for NBC, Los Angeles, and Telemundo 52 crashed in the Los Angeles community of Chatsworth. NBCLA confirmed the helicopter was Newschapter 4, which was providing coverage of a separate crash involving a metro bus. The victims aboard the helicopter identified as Eliana Moreno a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station's aerial coverage and pilot,

George Marconnell. Let's bring in Emmys now, senior reporter Josh Enoch, who's live at the scene in Chatsworth. Josh, what's the situation there? Amika, as you know, there's perhaps no TV market in the country that's more dependent on aerial news gathering than the L.A. market and all the stations, or at least many of them, were in the air in this area of Chatsworth covering this fatal. crash between an SUV and a city bus providing a service to their community less than 12 hours ago during the early evening news yesterday. When something went wrong with the chopper belonging to

NBC-owned station, KNBC, they call it News Chopper 4, and it fell out of the sky into a ball of flames in the lot behind me here. Right now, the wreckage, which fire officials describe as being barely recognizable is awaiting the arrival of an NTSB investigator as that agency determines how it proceeds as it tries to figure out what went wrong. As you point out, the crew and the crews of these helicopters risk their lives every day to provide this service to their communities. This is a fact that came home. So with such numbing loss yesterday, George Marcono and Eliana Moreno actually worked for a company called Angel City Air, which contracted with NBC to operate that helicopter. Right now, the LAPD is holding the scene.

There are some investigators with Tivek suits going through some of the wreckage as they wait for the NTSB to take the lead in this investigation. One other person, as you pointed out, Mika was also killed on the ground when it landed in this industrial park behind me. Right now, it's just a numbing loss for the L.A. TV community. These were fixtures of the airwaves, a partnership between the two of them that they have been flying together as partners for more than two years. And right now, the L.A. community is in mourning as they wait for answers on what went wrong. All right. MS. Now is Josh Einerger. Thank you very much for that update. Keep us posted. Meek a footnote on that partnership, and this is the station I grew up watching the News Center for, gave me my love of news, but the LA Times pointed out that Eliana, who was on social media,

Ellie and the Helly, very well-known and often would refer to George Marcenau when she was doing her report. So very personal for LA viewers in that statement. And we'll be right back with much more morning jail. Welcome back. President Trump is headed to North Carolina today to campaign with Republican Senate nominee Michael Watley. It's Trump's first rally since last week's GOP midterm convention in Dallas, where he promised to get more involved ahead of the midterms. Now, Watley is running in a tight race against former Democratic governor Roy Cooper. Watley was handpicked by the president for this race, but has been trailing in fundraising and some polls show Cooper with a slight lead, I will say Democratic. feel pretty optimistic about North Carolina. Meanwhile, the Trump appointed board members of the

Kennedy Center voted yesterday to immediately close the institutions performing arts building indefinitely for renovations. The board's decision came just minutes after a federal judge once again barred the center from adding Trump's name to the venue. In response, Trump immediately vowed to cancel the plan renovations unless the decision about adding his name is reversed. by a higher court. According to the board, the full shutdown of the complex is allegedly necessary in order to keep the building from posing a danger to employees and the public. The Washington Post notes that critics have accused center leaders of exaggerating the building's physical problems to justify a closure they say could conceal financial mismanagement

under Trump's leadership. Whether the center can remain closed will likely be decided by a federal judge. Let's remember this is a congressionally ordered tribute to a slain president, President Kennedy. President Trump is now saying that he has the money to fix it, but won't release those funds unless he gets his name on it. And he's threatened, and we should take him seriously here. He has threatened to knock the whole thing down. Do not be surprised if those threats ramp up in the days ahead. Coming up here on Morning Joe, we're going to explain the controversy surrounding the quarterback of the top-ranked college football team in the country. This controversy involves a sideline reporter and AI.

That's ahead here on Morning Joe. Welcome back. After more than 30 years, New York State is now moving to make region's exams. Those are the rigorous end-of-year tests that determine whether a students receive a diploma. Well, those exams are not going to be optional. The move is intended to eliminate barriers to graduation for some students, while offering other ways to demonstrate that they have mastered required material. State education officials say the new approach will maintain high academic standards. For critics are concerned, it could weaken those very standards

and leave students less prepared for college or their chosen careers. Joining us now, founder of Harlem Village Academies and the Deeper Learning Institute, Dr. Deborah Kenny, she is the author of the bestselling book, The Well-educated Child, how the principles and practices of quality, thinking, agency, and ethical purpose cultivate deeper learning. Dr. Kenne, good to see you, as always. This has been sort of bandied about, rumored for a while, this decision on the regents exams. Let's get your thoughts here, including, you know, as I just laid out, the arguments on either side. Some saying, like, these exams are not the best measure of whether a student is learning, and others who say, wait a minute,

like this might leave them less prepared. Yeah, it's a very nuanced and incredibly important time. And like you said, this has been in the works since the 1980s, really. There are two schools of thought, and I think the only way to really analyze and understand this is to look carefully at those rather than jumping to conclusions. On the one hand, there are people who think this could be a disaster, that there will now be no accountability, that there will be just faux rigor, faux engagement. And I think that there's a reason to have those kind of serious concerns.

The folks who are excited about this would be people who look at schools like high-tech high as an example of a pre-eminent project-based learning school where the kids got a chance to work with the scientist, E.O. Wilson, on incredibly sophisticated projects. But the problem is the implementation. If you don't have a basement, if you don't have just a foundation of accountability at the basic level, then what are you going to do with schools that don't have the ability or resources to achieve projects at that higher level? You know, George Lucas is very involved in project-based learning. And some of the ideas that could align with what the Regents are aspiring to are just incredible. But there's no structure that's going to guarantee that that excellent implementation

happens. So let's set Regions an exam to the side for a moment. Where do reading scores stand in terms of public school students right now in New York State and New York City? Well, and across the country, there's a very serious concern among teachers that students arrive to middle school and high school not even able to read on grade levels so that they don't even have the basics. And so what are they reading? Well, they're not reading. That's the problem. You know, kids are, and we've talked about, we've talked about this before here on the show, that that literacy is at a crisis point. And so if you're eliminating the requirement to read full books and kids are losing their attention span, then that is a serious problem.

How would you pass a regents exam if you're fairly illiterate? Well, the idea now is that the regents will not, it will still be required, but it won't be required to get a high school diploma, which means that on the one hand, you open up opportunities for, for much more sophisticated curricula like the International Baccalaureate, which we're doing at our school. So if you have the wherewithal, I mean, it's... What is that? That is the most sophisticated high school curriculum in the world, the international baccalaureate.

It started in Europe, and it's now across the United States, and it requires students to not only read a lot, but to do an immense amount of writing, research projects. They spend a whole year learning how to do research. They have to write. They're required to write a number of extended essays, oral defense of their exams. So it's incredibly rigorous. So if all schools were able to adopt such a sophisticated program, then this move by the regions

will be an incredible opportunity. However, if schools don't have the wherewithal to do that, then it's a free-for-all. And that's why people are very worried. So Dr. Kane, while we have you, the subject, The topic of du jour is AI right now, of course, including the apocalyptic warnings of recent days. But this has already been a subject of serious debate in academia. Right. What in New York City just announced it's banning AI for students through-

And Los Angeles also. Right. Los Angeles. So the first and second largest school systems in the country doing so. What is your reaction to that? And is there an appropriate use for AI, you know, whether it's, you know, for high schoolers or other students, what should, you know, it's unavoidable in some ways. how should it be used or not at all? Right. So first, it's going to be what the future holds. No question

about it. There's a lot of experimentation going on right now, a lot of ideas. However, we should not be experimenting on our children. I mean, can you imagine if there was a new drug and they said it has the potential to cure this and that disease, but it hasn't been tested? We're just going to shoot it into the arms of every kid. That would never happen. So I applaud the idea of a moratorium and giving it time to make sure that we're doing it in the right way. All right. Best selling author and founder of Harlem Village Academies and the Deeper Learning Institute, Dr. Debra Kenney, Dr. Kenney, we appreciate your thoughts this morning.

Thanks for coming by. Up next here on Morning Joe, we'll get into the new backlash that's surrounding musician Ed Sheeran, whose concert tour is in real jeopardy this morning following the removal of another act, one of his opening acts, remarks over the war in Gaza. Keep it here on, Morning Joe. Turning to some of the morning's other headlines now, the remaining concerts for Ed Sheareran Stadium Tour in North and South America are in jeopardy this morning after all of the singers opening acts as well as his tour band have announced that they won't take the stage. This comes after rapper McLemore was removed from the tour earlier this week after he gave a lengthy speech on the war in Gaza during a tour stop in New Jersey. One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here

on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart, free Palestine. To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace, love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality. Several jurors' organizations, including the Israeli American Council, launched petitions calling for McLemore's removal from the tour. A number of stadium owners added pressure, saying they would not allow the concert to take place if McElmore remained on the set list. Sharon himself waited on social media yesterday, writing,

There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics. My audience includes young people, often children of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect the political forum. Obviously, there's a long tradition of artists using their shows as political forums. Robert Kraft, the owner of the England Patriots, one of the fiercest critics of what McLeod Moore said. Shearin himself said he wasn't involved with these decisions. We will see what happens to the tour. But I think this is a story that's going to take on a life of its own about free speech,

art commenting on what people see in the world. Now, to a controversy of a very different sort, this one involving one of college's football's most prominent players. Texas quarterback Arch Manning has apologized for publicly joking about an AI-altered video that depicts Longhorns coach, his coach, Steve Sargesian, slapping ESPN, side of reporter Holly Roe in the moments after the team's stunning win over Ohio State on Saturday. It follows widespread criticism over Manning's remarks during Monday's press conference, at which the 22-year-old was asked if he had seen any social media posts about the postgame

celebration. He mentioned the fake video clip, calling it hilarious, and laughed about it along with several others in the room. Manning addressed the incident yesterday in a post on Instagram, writing, I made an insensitive comment about an AI video. There is nothing funny about it. easy to say I didn't mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly, and I am deeply sorry for that. He added, I specifically want to apologize to Holly Roe for what she personally had to deal with because of my comments. I have a ton of respect for her and appreciate her showing me grace in this moment. I need to do better and will be more thoughtful going forward.

Roe responded in a post on X accepting Manning's apology and said they discussed the matter. So Mike Barnacle, you know, good for him for apologizing. But certainly, it's not funny a video fake or not depicting a woman being assaulted. Why is it that everything in our culture goes from zero to 60 in about a nanosecond? I mean, we're talking about a college football game. I have not seen the video, but the content of the video, as it was just explained, would seem to be offensive. But it interrupts everything in the flow of life, things like this, and everything. Ed Sheeran's concert, Arch Manning as a quarterback, that becomes secondary to the furor that surrounds these events.

I just, there's so much on the minds of Americans. You know, I think a lot of people just want to sit down and watch a football game, just pure football. A lot of people want to go to a concert and hear just the music instead of contentious policies, although the clip we showed was a lot less offensive than the coverage made it seem, the print coverage made it seem. Yeah, and I do think, to your point, piggybacking off of your point, you know, the video was fake, the ESPN reporter being assaulted. Yeah.

But these fakes are becoming so much more convincing. It is hard to know what's real or what's not. I mean, again, we're not at all saying that Archmanning should have said that, but I just think that's something we're all everyone has to look out for going forward. All right. We're going to be right back with some more morning Joe right after this. Orioleslugger, Hita Lonzo made a rare curtain call on the road last night at City Field after he hit his 300th career home run, and he did it in the ninth inning to tie the game

against, of course, his former team, the New York Mets. Baltimore would then complete its comeback in the 11th. beating the Amazons 7 to 5. Mike Barcl, several thoughts here. First of all, you can see what that moment meant to Alonzo the way through his back. Absolutely. Alonzo, a beloved Met, David Stearns, the general manager, wanted no part of him for a couple of years now. Let him go.

There are Mets fans who are so angry at that decision who are so angry at this team and therefore were delighted to cheer on Alonzo last night. Pete Alonzo is the perfect example to use about the danger of so many general managers relying solely on metrics. He was traded because they felt he had passed his prime. He played 162 games each year for the Mets. He averaged 35 home runs a season. That home run he hit last night with his 300th of his career.

He should still be a MET, but they said, oh, no, he's going to fade when he's old. Yeah, when he's 35, 36, he won't be performing the way he performed last night. There's no doubt about that. No player does. But the number of players, including Mookie Betts, who were moved early, because they figured, you know, well, we've seen the best of them. Pete Alonzo is one of those people. And he's having a good year in Baltimore.

And he also just meant so much for his fan base and that locker room and yet still cast aside. That does it for us this morning. We, of course, we'll see it tomorrow at 6 a.m. Eastern for another morning. Joe, money, power, politics with Stephanie Rule is up next after a short final break.