CSPAN - President Trump Visits Kennedy Center
Aired: 2025-03-18
Duration: 09:43


=== Kennedy Center Insights (09:42) ===

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[00:00:39]  President Donald Trump spoke about the role of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. during his visit to the Performance Center.
[00:00:47]  During his remarks, he also spoke about the war in Ukraine.
[00:01:32]  We're here to have our first board meeting at the Kennedy Center, and it's in tremendous disrepair, as is a lot of the rest of our country, most of it because of bad management.
[00:01:46]  This is a shame what I've watched and witnessed.
[00:01:50]  They spent a fortune, $250 million, and they built these rooms that nobody's going to use, rooms underground.
[00:01:59]  And I've often wondered what are the big cubes that they have outside that block the view.
[00:02:04]  They're cubes with a door in them so that people can get down to rooms that nobody's going to use.
[00:02:09]  And it's a shame.
[00:02:11]  It's a shame.
[00:02:12]  The other thing is I'm going to have a little problem with some people that work here.
[00:02:18]  We had Lee Greenwood wanted to sing a little song today.
[00:02:21]  And because of the cost in the union structure, for him to sing a song just for the board, just a board meeting, it was going to cost $30,000.
[00:02:30]  That doesn't sound too good.
[00:02:32]  They wanted $30,000 to move a piano.
[00:02:35]  So you can't have that.
[00:02:37]  So we're going to fix it up.
[00:02:39]  But it's really emblematic of our country.
[00:02:43]  But the Kennedy Center, if you look at the columns outside, you look at, I mean, they're supposed to be covered by something, whether it's marble or whatever, granite, they were never covered.
[00:02:54]  They were painted.
[00:02:55]  But bring it into more modern times, a lot of money's been given to it, and the money has not been properly spent.
[00:03:02]  They built rooms underground with no windows, no nothing, that will not be used ever.
[00:03:08]  You're not going to have people use them.
[00:03:10]  Such a waste of money, such a terrible waste, but we'll make it, we'll bring it back, we'll make it great again.
[00:03:16]  But it is so much like what I'm witnessing in other places.
[00:03:19]  We have open borders.
[00:03:21]  We have men playing in women's sports.
[00:03:23]  It's all the same thing.
[00:03:24]  It's all the same mentality and thinking.
[00:03:27]  So I'm very disappointed when I look around.
[00:03:30]  The bottom line, it has tremendous potential.
[00:03:33]  And we'll work with Congress.
[00:03:35]  As you know, it's very public, a very public facility.
[00:03:39]  And we'll do what has to be done.
[00:03:41]  We'll be having a meeting with the Speaker in the not too distant future.
[00:03:46]  I think it's important to save this structure in this building.
[00:03:49]  I think maybe we close up some of the work that's been done and built because it was done terribly.
[00:03:55]  It was done terribly.
[00:03:56]  The concept was very bad.
[00:03:58]  Mr. President, why is it so important to come here today to the Kennedy Center?
[00:04:03]  You have so much on your plate.
[00:04:05]  Why come today here?
[00:04:06]  This represents a very important part of D.C. and actually our country.
[00:04:12]  And I think it's important to make sure that our country is in good shape and is represented well.
[00:04:19]  When people look at this, I've been hearing for a long time that they come here and they're very disappointed.
[00:04:25]  When they come here, I want them to be excited.
[00:04:27]  We're bringing a big move on to Washington, D.C. We're going to stop the crime.
[00:04:31]  We actually worked with the mayor.
[00:04:33]  We took down a lot of tents.
[00:04:35]  They were all over the place in front of the State Department.
[00:04:38]  And they did a good job of that.
[00:04:39]  I was very happy with what the mayor did.
[00:04:41]  She was able to get him out quickly at my direction and at the direction of the administration.
[00:04:47]  But we're cleaning up Washington, D.C.
[00:04:50]  This is a big part of Washington, D.C. Mr. President, for Americans visiting Washington, perhaps they're thinking about seeing a show at the Kennedy Center, what would you tell them?
[00:04:59]  They've never been here before and they want to come check it out?
[00:05:02]  Yeah, I'd say come here and see a show.
[00:05:05]  I was never a big fan of it.
[00:05:06]  I never liked Hamilton very much.
[00:05:09]  And I never liked it.
[00:05:11]  But we are going to have some really good shows.
[00:05:15]  I would say this.
[00:05:16]  Come here and watch it, and you'll see over a period of time it'll improve very greatly physically and we're going to get some very good shows.
[00:05:24]  The thing that does well are Broadway hits.
[00:05:27]  And we have some beauty.
[00:05:28]  I guess we have Les Miz coming and we have some others, but the Broadway hits have done very well.
[00:05:35]  So I'm going to spend some time.
[00:05:36]  We have a good board.
[00:05:38]  In the meantime, we're running the country and we're running it well.
[00:05:41]  We have tremendous things to report.
[00:05:43]  Tomorrow I'm speaking with President Putin of Russia to save some soldiers who are in deep trouble.
[00:05:50]  They're captured.
[00:05:51]  Essentially, they're surrounded by Russian soldiers.
[00:05:54]  So I give it a lot of different, I give you a lot of different things in one news conference, but it's a big deal.
[00:06:00]  They're surrounded by Russian soldiers.
[00:06:04]  And I believe if it wasn't for me, they wouldn't be here any longer.
[00:06:10]  I was able to get them not to do anything at this moment.
[00:06:13]  But it's a bad situation in Russia, and it's a bad situation in Ukraine.
[00:06:18]  What's happening in Ukraine is not good.
[00:06:21]  But we're going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire, and peace, and I think we'll be able to do it.
[00:06:26]  I'm speaking to President Putin tomorrow morning, yes.
[00:06:44]  No, not at all.
[00:06:45]  No, really the opposite.
[00:06:47]  I think it was appreciated.
[00:06:50]  And we have to understand, and you have to understand, that if I see somebody doing something bad that's going to cause a lot of death, the only reason I'm involved, and this is Russia and Ukraine, but a lot of people, it's humanity.
[00:07:03]  I'm involved for humanity.
[00:07:05]  A lot of people are being killed over there, and we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing.
[00:07:11]  It was not an easy situation.
[00:07:13]  You got to see a little glimpse at the Oval Office.
[00:07:17]  But I think they're doing the right thing right now, and we're trying to get a peace agreement done.
[00:07:21]  We want to get a ceasefire and then a peace agreement.
[00:07:26]  Who you with?
[00:07:37]  So we're going to see how it all works out.
[00:07:42]  This was Joe Biden's deal.
[00:07:44]  This isn't Trump's deal.
[00:07:45]  This is Joe Biden's deal.
[00:07:47]  He gave $350 billion to Ukraine, and he shouldn't have done it.
[00:07:52]  It wasn't secured.
[00:07:54]  Europe gave $100 billion and it was in the form of a loan.
[00:07:57]  They get their money back.
[00:08:00]  And they should actually have much more in it than us.
[00:08:03]  But Joe Biden was grossly incompetent, and it's a shame what they did.
[00:08:08]  $350 billion.
[00:08:10]  We could have rebuilt our entire Navy for that kind of money.
[00:08:13]  Mr. President, sir, there were 18 Secret Service agents protecting Hunter Biden in South Africa this weekend.
[00:08:20]  Who's paying for that?
[00:08:21]  And do you plan to revoke the Secret Service protection?
[00:08:24]  Well, we have done that with many.
[00:08:26]  I would say if there are 18 with Hunter Biden, that will be something I'll look at this afternoon.
[00:08:31]  Okay?
[00:08:32]  Sir?
[00:08:32]  You just heard about it for the first time.
[00:08:34]  So you have 18 Secret Service going.
[00:08:37]  Where is he exactly?
[00:08:39]  In South Africa.
[00:08:40]  In South Africa.
[00:08:41]  And South Africa, you know, is on a watch list.
[00:08:45]  You know that.
[00:08:46]  Because what they're doing to people is brutal.
[00:08:49]  And I've stopped having money go to South Africa.
[00:08:52]  You know that.
[00:08:52]  Billions of dollars.
[00:08:54]  So he's in South Africa.
[00:08:56]  That's very interesting.
[00:08:57]  All right.
[00:08:58]  I'm going to take a look at that.
[00:08:59]  Thank you very much.
[00:09:00]  The Catholic Church, the Wichita of Kansas over the weekend, was vandalized.
[00:09:05]  Statues destroyed, glass smashed, graffiti all over the place.
[00:09:09]  Church officials in Kansas call it a hate crime.
[00:09:12]  I know you signed an ego, eradicated anti-Christian bias.
[00:09:16]  But, sir, what more can the White House do to protect places of worship like St. Patrick's Church and Wichita here?
[00:09:22]  Well, we're going to take a look.
[00:09:23]  I love Wichita.
[00:09:25]  You know, I got big votes there.
[00:09:26]  We won that state by a lot.
[00:09:28]  We'll take a look at that.
[00:09:29]  When did this happen?
[00:09:30]  This happened over the weekend, sir, again, statues destroyed.
[00:09:33]  Terrible.
[00:09:34]  I think it's a terrible thing.
[00:09:36]  And this was a Catholic church.
[00:09:38]  I'm going to take a look at it.
[00:09:42]  Thank you very much, everybody.