CSPAN - President Trump Visits Kennedy Center
Aired: 2025-03-23
Duration: 10:31


=== Ukraine Ceasefire Update (10:23) ===

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[00:01:04]  President Donald Trump spoke about the role of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. during his visit to the Performance Center.
[00:01:12]  During his remarks, he also spoke about the war in Ukraine.
[00:01:52]  What is your primary message?
[00:01:55]  So thank you very much.
[00:01:57]  We're here to have our first board meeting at 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.
[00:02:11]  This is a shame what I've watched and witnessed.
[00:02:15]  They spent a fortune, $250 million, and they built these rooms that nobody's going to use, rooms underground.
[00:02:24]  And I've often wondered what are the big cubes that they have outside that block the view, the cubes with a door in them, so that people can get down to rooms that nobody's going to use.
[00:02:34]  And it's a shame.
[00:02:35]  It's a shame.
[00:02:36]  The other thing is I'm going to have a little problem with some people that work here.
[00:02:43]  We had Lee Greenwood wanted to sing a little song today.
[00:02:46]  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.
[00:02:55]  That doesn't sound too good.
[00:02:57]  They wanted $30,000 to move a piano.
[00:03:00]  So you can't have that.
[00:03:01]  So we're going to fix it up.
[00:03:04]  But it's really emblematic of our country.
[00:03:07]  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.
[00:03:17]  They were never covered.
[00:03:18]  They were painted.
[00:03:19]  But bring it into more modern times, a lot of money's been given to it, and the money has not been properly spent.
[00:03:26]  They built rooms underground with no windows, no nothing, that will not be used ever.
[00:03:33]  You're not going to have people use them.
[00:03:35]  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.
[00:03:41]  But it is so much like what I'm witnessing in other places.
[00:03:44]  We have open borders.
[00:03:46]  We have men playing in women's sports.
[00:03:48]  It's all the same thing.
[00:03:49]  It's all the same mentality and thinking.
[00:03:52]  So I'm very disappointed when I look around.
[00:03:55]  The bottom line, it has tremendous potential.
[00:03:58]  And we'll work with Congress.
[00:04:00]  As you know, it's very public, a very public facility.
[00:04:04]  And we'll do what has to be done.
[00:04:06]  We'll be having a meeting with the Speaker in the not too distant future.
[00:04:10]  I think it's important to save this structure in this building.
[00:04:14]  I think maybe we close up some of the work that's been done and built because it was done terribly.
[00:04:19]  It was done terribly.
[00:04:20]  The concept was very bad.
[00:04:22]  Mr. President, why is it so important to come here today to the Kennedy Center?
[00:04:28]  You have so much on your plate.
[00:04:30]  Why come today here?
[00:04:31]  This represents a very important part of D.C. and actually our country.
[00:04:37]  And I think it's important to make sure that our country is in good shape and is represented well.
[00:04:44]  When people look at this, I've been hearing for a long time that they come here and they're very disappointed.
[00:04:50]  When they come here, I want them to be excited.
[00:04:52]  We're bringing a big move on to Washington, D.C. We're going to stop the crime.
[00:04:56]  We actually worked with the mayor.
[00:04:58]  We took down a lot of tents.
[00:04:59]  They were all over the place in front of the State Department.
[00:05:02]  And they did a good job of that.
[00:05:04]  I was very happy with what the mayor did.
[00:05:06]  She was able to get them out quickly at my direction and at the direction of the administration.
[00:05:12]  But we're cleaning up Washington, D.C.
[00:05:14]  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?
[00:05:24]  They've never been here before and they want to come check it out?
[00:05:27]  Yeah, I'd say come here and see a show.
[00:05:29]  I was never a big fan of, I never liked Hamilton very much, and I never liked it.
[00:05:36]  But we are going to have some really good shows.
[00:05:40]  I would say this, 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.
[00:05:49]  The thing that does well are Broadway hits.
[00:05:52]  And we have some beauty.
[00:05:53]  I guess we have Les Miz coming and we have some others.
[00:05:56]  But the Broadway hits have done very well.
[00:05:59]  So I'm going to spend some time.
[00:06:01]  We have a good board.
[00:06:02]  In the meantime, we're running the country and we're running it well.
[00:06:05]  We have tremendous things to report.
[00:06:08]  Tomorrow I'm speaking with President Putin of Russia to save some soldiers who are in deep trouble.
[00:06:15]  They're captured.
[00:06:16]  Essentially, they're surrounded by Russian soldiers.
[00:06:19]  So I give it to you a lot of different, I give you a lot of different things in one news conference, but it's a big deal.
[00:06:25]  They're surrounded by Russian soldiers.
[00:06:29]  And I believe if it wasn't for me, they wouldn't be here any longer.
[00:06:35]  I was able to get them not to do anything at this moment.
[00:06:38]  But it's a bad situation in Russia, and it's a bad situation in Ukraine.
[00:06:42]  What's happening in Ukraine is not good.
[00:06:45]  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.
[00:06:51]  Speaking to President Putin tomorrow morning.
[00:06:54]  Yes, yeah.
[00:07:09]  No, not at all.
[00:07:09]  No, really the opposite.
[00:07:12]  I think it was appreciated.
[00:07:14]  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.
[00:07:28]  I'm involved for humanity.
[00:07:30]  A lot of people are being killed over there and we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing.
[00:07:36]  It was not an easy situation.
[00:07:38]  You got to see a little glimpse at the Oval Office.
[00:07:41]  But I think they're doing the right thing right now, and we're trying to get a peace agreement done.
[00:07:45]  We want to get a ceasefire and then a peace agreement.
[00:07:51]  Who you with?
[00:08:01]  Sure.
[00:08:02]  So we're going to see how it all works out.
[00:08:07]  This was Joe Biden's deal.
[00:08:08]  This isn't Trump's deal.
[00:08:10]  This is Joe Biden's deal.
[00:08:12]  He gave $350 billion to Ukraine, and he shouldn't have done it.
[00:08:17]  It wasn't secured.
[00:08:19]  Europe gave $100 billion, and it was in the form of a loan.
[00:08:22]  They get their money back.
[00:08:24]  And they should actually have much more in it than us.
[00:08:28]  But Joe Biden was grossly incompetent, and it's a shame what they did.
[00:08:32]  $350 billion.
[00:08:35]  We could have rebuilt our entire Navy for that kind of money.
[00:08:40]  Sir, there were 18 Secret Service agents protecting Hunter Biden in South Africa this weekend.
[00:08:45]  Who's paying for that?
[00:08:46]  Would you plan to revoke a Secret Service protection?
[00:08:48]  Well, we have done that with many.
[00:08:50]  I would say if there are 18 with Hunter Biden, that will be something I'll look at this afternoon.
[00:08:56]  Okay?
[00:08:56]  Sir?
[00:08:57]  I just heard about it for the first time.
[00:08:59]  So you have 18 Secret Service going.
[00:09:02]  Where is he exactly?
[00:09:03]  In South Africa.
[00:09:05]  In South Africa.
[00:09:06]  And South Africa, you know, is on a watch list.
[00:09:09]  You know that.
[00:09:11]  Because what they're doing to people is brutal.
[00:09:14]  And I've stopped having money go to South Africa.
[00:09:16]  You know that.
[00:09:17]  Billions of dollars.
[00:09:19]  So he's in South Africa.
[00:09:21]  That's very interesting.
[00:09:22]  All right.
[00:09:22]  I'm going to take a look at that.
[00:09:24]  Thank you very much.
[00:09:25]  The Catholic Church, the Wichita Kansas over the weekend, was vandalized.
[00:09:30]  Statues destroyed, glass smashed, graffiti all over the place.
[00:09:33]  Church officials in Kansas call it a hate crime.
[00:09:36]  I know you're signed an ego, eradicating anti-Christian bias.
[00:09:41]  But, sir, what more can the White House do to protect places of worship like St. Patrick's Church and Wichita Fund?
[00:09:47]  Well, we're going to take a look.
[00:09:48]  I love Wichita.
[00:09:49]  You know, I got big votes there.
[00:09:51]  We won that state by a lot.
[00:09:53]  We'll take a look at that.
[00:09:54]  When did this happen?
[00:09:54]  This happened over the New Guinea surrounding statues destroyed.
[00:09:58]  Terrible.
[00:09:59]  I think it's a terrible thing.
[00:10:00]  And this was a Catholic church.
[00:10:03]  I'm going to take a look at it.
[00:10:06]  Thank you very much, everybody.
[00:10:08]  Thank you, sir.
[00:10:23]  At the Kennedy Center here in Washington, D.C., President Trump announced the release of 80,000 pages of unredacted Kennedy assassination files.