TV News LIES

President Trump has overseen a series of dramatic changes at the Kennedy Center since taking office at the beginning of the year.

The most significant shifts came in two waves, both of which resulted in artists canceling performances in protest of Trump’s takeover of the cultural institution.

In February, Trump replaced multiple board members with allies, who then elected Trump chair of the board, days after the president first announced on social media that he would serve in the position. He then named longtime ally Richard Grenell the center’s interim executive director.

This month, the board voted to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The president also hosted the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, which aired last week.

Here are some of the performances that were canceled:

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Democrat Renee Hardman won a special election for state Senate in Iowa on Tuesday, preventing Republicans from regaining a supermajority in the chamber, Decision Desk HQ projects.

Hardman, the West Des Moines mayor pro tempore, defeated Republican Lucas Loftin to fill the seat that has been vacant since state Sen. Claire Celsi (D) died in October.

Her victory denies Republicans a two-thirds majority in the upper chamber, which would have given them the power to override a governor’s veto, call for special sessions and approve a governor’s appointees on a party-line vote. 

With Hardman’s win, Iowa Democrats are closing out the year strong. Back in January, Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped an Iowa state Senate district that had overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024. And in August, Democrat Catelin Drey flipped another open state Senate seat, breaking the GOP supermajority. 

Her win is also the last in a string of notable victories for the party nationwide. Democrats most recently saw success in a special election for a state Senate seat in Kentucky. Prior to that, the party overperformed in a special election in Tennessee. And Democrats had a better-than-expected election in November, when they overwhelmingly won the governors’ mansions in New Jersey and Virginia, the mayor’s office in New York City, and a number of other notable downballot races.

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Uncle Sam wants you to dress up when heading to the airport, but are people heeding the call?

The request for sartorial seriousness in the skies is part of the "The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You" campaign, which the Department of Transportation says aims to "restore courtesy and class to air travel."

When the campaign launched in November, the DOT cited trends that have festered among travelers for years, including 13,800 unruly passenger incidents since 2021, a 400% increase in inflight outbursts since 2019, and one in five flight attendants experiencing "physical incidents" in 2021.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a BlazeTV interview published Nov. 25 that not dressing "respectfully" can lead to "people not treating each other respectfully."

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Tatiana Schlossberg, the environmental journalist, author and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, has died. She was 35. 

Her death was confirmed Dec. 30 by the The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the nonprofit organization that provides financial support and staffing for the former president's library.

"She will always be in our hearts," her parents, siblings, husband and children said in an Instagram post.

Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and designer Edwin Schlossberg, disclosed her terminal cancer diagnosis in a Nov. 22 essay for the New Yorker.

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On December 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a $35 billion deal to sell natural gas to Egypt in what officials describe as the largest energy export agreement in Israel’s history. The natural gas will be produced from Leviathan, a massive field west of Haifa. “On this day,” Netanyahu wrote in a statement that day, the third day of Hanukkah, “we’ve brought another jug of oil to the nation of Israel. But this time, the flame will burn not just for eight days, but for decades to come.”

The gas export permit for Egypt came after months of delays and behind-the-scenes disputes between Tel Aviv, Cairo, and Washington. The decision is expected to reinforce the Camp David peace framework between Egypt and Israel—an arrangement strained by the Gaza genocide—while cementing Israel’s emergence as a major natural gas supplier in the eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

The deal has been more than a decade in the making—and one unlikely individual played a small, but essential role in laying its groundwork: Jeffrey Epstein. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak consulted extensively with Epstein on financial deals around Leviathan for years, as Barak searched for international backers for Leviathan’s development.

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The Kremlin vowed Monday to ramp up hostilities on Ukraine in response to what it alleged was a “terroristic attack” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s property — just a day after President Donald Trump said he was close to producing a deal that would bring peace to the region.

Trump, after a Sunday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago, sounded optimistic about getting closer to a peace agreement. But it was clear Monday that very little has changed as the war — both on the battlefield and in the information space — raged on.

Yuri Ushakov, a top Putin aide, said Monday that an alleged Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian president would trigger “the most serious response.” He also said Putin informed Trump of the attack by phone Monday morning.

The White House, when asked for comment, only pointed to a social media statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying “President Trump has concluded a positive call with President Putin concerning Ukraine.”

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President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were in lockstep on Monday during a press conference following their lunch meeting at Mar-a-Lago, ramping up pressure on Hamas to disarm and threatening to renew attacks on Iran if it seeks to build up its ballistic missile program.

Trump said Israel had lived up to its commitments in the Gaza ceasefire plan “100 percent,” despite the U.S. reportedly scolding Netanyahu for killing a top Hamas military leader in Gaza earlier this month.

And the president sought to ramp up pressure on Israel’s adversaries, telling Hamas to disarm quickly or be “wiped out,” and even suggesting that Arab countries might intervene militarily if Hamas refuses to abide by the contours of a peace deal signed in September. 

Trump said it was unclear if Iran was seeking to “build up again,” apparently referring to reports of ballistic missile testing, but he warned the U.S. could deploy its B-2 bombers if necessary, as it did to launch strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June. 

Trump also discussed the latest developments in his push for peace in Ukraine, ongoing efforts to bring stability to Syria and China’s military drills around Taiwan.

Here are five key takeaways from the meeting:

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Donald Trump’s actions and incendiary remarks in the first year of his second presidential term have left many women, people of color and their allies in a tailspin.

Shortly after re-entering office, he released executive orders that attacked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and transgender rights. His January orders that called for an end to DEI and affirmative action led to thousands of cuts in the private and public sectors – and shake-ups within the journalism industry. One directive that banned access to gender-affirming care for youth under the age of 19 sent families into a flurry as they scrambled to ensure that their trans kids continued to receive treatment.

Another executive order directed his vice-president, JD Vance, to prohibit federal spending on Smithsonian programs or exhibits that focused on race. He also worked to suppress Indigenous history by again changing the name of the mountain Denali in the Athabascan language to Mount McKinley. And his mass deportation operations have torn families apart.

Along with his federal policies, Trump also shared racist, xenophobic and sexist comments during speeches, press meetings and on his social media platform, Truth Social, throughout the year.

Here’s Trump – in his own words – as year two of his second term looms.:

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