“Donald Trump is trying to tighten his grip on the news media”

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As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don't support free speech.

I'm not a liberty to say which. Let's just leave it at North Korea and CBS.

Fortunately,

fortunately for all of us, there is an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling

the truth. Oftentimes, at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice,

that inspire us to take action, and there are also documentaries where you walk around the

White House trying on shoes. I get everybody. This is five o'clock in New York. I'll show you

what happened next in a minute, because it's also part of this conversation.

One of an aspiring autocrat, increasingly unpopular with the American people,

celebrities, and otherwise, the war he started and the frightening lengths to which

Donald Trump appears ready to go to control what people know and to define what is truth.

Over the weekend, not long after defense secretary Pete Hegseth used time during a war briefing

to attack a cable news channel for its coverage of the war,

Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, made a threat.

That the federal government will revoke the licenses of major broadcasters over what they see

as negative coverage of the war. I'll read it to you, quote, broadcasters must operate in the

public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not end quote. Not leaving a lot of

room for ambiguity there. And then yesterday, in the course of accusing the news media of using

an AI video to report fake news, Donald Trump suggested news outlets could be charged with treason,

a crime that is sometimes punishable by death. He also accused news outlets of, in so many words,

wanting the United States of America to lose the war with Iran. Politico describes it like this,

as a quote from Pestuous, 20-minute briefing on Air Force One, where Trump raged at reporters

and mainstream outlets alike. Media organizations making false claims about the war

were pretty criminal. ABC News was quote, maybe the most corrupt news organization on the planet

end quote. One reporter was told she was a quote, very obnoxious person. Another was accused of

knowingly peddling Iranian myths. A question about U.S. military options was ridiculed.

Another und deceased U.S. service men and women was simply ignored.

All of this is yet another example happening in full view of all of us of the press if we keep

our eyes open wide enough of Donald Trump very publicly trying to tighten his grip on the truth

by tightening his grip on the media. As he loses his popularity and his grip politically

over his own base and the broader swath of the American people, and we have to add perhaps

the reality itself. Of course, this wasn't the first aggressive action threatened or taken

against people who are on the air. There have been investigations and inquiries and targeted

pressure campaigns. There have been large sums paid. There was the instance of Jimmy Kimmel himself

for a joke he made on his late night program. So as we mentioned, we want to show you what happened

last night after Kimmel presented the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature to the film Mr. Nobody

Against Putin Watch. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. And what we

saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts

of complicity. When we act complicit, when a government merers people on the streets of our

major cities, when we don't say anything, when all the garks take over the media and control

how we could produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice, but luckily even a nobody

is more powerful than you think. Well, that's where we start the hour. Professor of History

at New York University, Ruth Bengiad is here. She's the author of Strong Men, Mussolini, to the present

plus political analyst, host of the Bowork podcast, Tim Miller is here. And with me at the table,

Princeton University, Professor and Political Analyst, Eddie Gladys here. Ruth, I could play that

acceptance speech every day and it could tee off a conversation about what we're witnessing with

our own eyes. Just talk about, talk about that statement, how you lose your country, you lose it

through a thousand little acts when you don't say anything and when all the garks take over the media.

Yes, and it shows that corruption is a process, media captures the process. And I've seen

that wonderful film and it's about a teacher in a rural kind of mountain region that's just

deciding that he was not going to stand anymore for the lives at great risk to himself.

And he was the Mr. Nobody of the title and the whole film is about anybody can stand up to power

and set an example that others can follow, even against the Kremlin.

Tim Miller, I feel like around here we have kept a running tab and you do this incredible

work every day yourself, but we've tried to keep tabs of the capitulators and the people standing

up and the capitulator list is tragically a lot longer. It includes really in a better

finance, I would say. It includes most powerful, biggest, most prestigious law firms in our country,

the most prestigious universities in our country, the most successful tech companies in our country,

the most skilled and cutting edge AI creators in the world and in our country. But the list

of nobody's is growing too. And I wonder how you see this fight today?

Yeah, you know, I was wrestling with this this morning myself, Nicole, because there is

sort of two ways to look at it. And I think they're kind of both true in a sense. Like one,

the attempts, the assault on free speech, the complicity of the owners of

many of these platforms. And in some cases, more than complicity actually, you know,

that working actively together with the government to crack down on people,

that is dangerous. And we've seen it, and Ruth's probably better talk about this in me,

the ways that we've seen that same story plot in other countries, particularly in Hungary,

and it's something that we should be vigilant about. And so I don't want to understate

the threat there. On the other hand, I was kind of thinking of that phrase from Jurassic Park,

the Jeff Goldblum phrase where he says life finds a way. And there is kind of like a reality

finds a way element, at least for now in this world still. And you know, a lot with a lot of nobody

speaking up. We saw it yesterday in those clips that you've played. We saw it in Minneapolis.

And if you just look at the numbers, like Trump is lashing out right now and threatening

treason on journalists and all this, because the truth is getting out about his disastrous war

effort, right? Like they're complaining, the Secretary of War is complaining about the

Kairan's on TV, you know, because they aren't unable to control the narrative. And Trump's been

so good over his career at controlling the narrative, and they can't right now. People see the

reality. They see that it's an encounter, the management of the war has been incompetent. They

see that it doesn't really impact their lives. I see, you know, meaningfully it's from a security

standpoint, but it is impacting their lives negatively, you know, economically when they go to the

gas station. And so, you know, that reality is getting out because, you know, people aren't afraid,

and people are still speaking out, and whether they be nobody's or somebody's. And that is,

that's a good sign, like amidst the threats. Yeah, I mean, the only thing I think people are afraid.

I think there's just, I mean, he's at generously 35%, and it may have taken 65% of the country to

oppose him for some of the cultural levers to operate SNL. My personal opinion is that it got

a little bit of a slow start, but this was their cold open Saturday night.

Getting the possibly not, it's called butterfly effect, right? Epstein was first dominoe. Epstein,

ding, ding, bung, bung, ding, bung, bung, bung, bung, war. Anyway, I, as me, Donald Trump,

you might remember me from such campaign promises as lower gas prices. And no more wars,

psych. We love to make promises because the promise is just a lie that hasn't happened yet.

It's a tire, but it lands in a different way than political combat on a Sunday morning show.

Absolutely. Popular culture is always this kind of reservoir, this resource to bring critique to

bear on power. And so it's the messiness of democratic life that can't, can't be captured so easily.

But I think it's important to echo Tim and Ruth to understand that these things are happening at

two different registers. We know Donald Trump and his supporters are in some ways trying to engage

or trying to make a reality if an informational autocracy, right? Which goes to the heart of how

democracy's function. So even if you have everyday ordinary people, whether you want to describe

them as nobody's or not, trying to fight back the capture of their imaginations, what happens

when you plug up information flows where folk have to find the truth in these various silos and

you don't know what is true and what isn't. And so it leads to an informed public, I think,

but it's always coming with an asterisk. And so we have to be mindful of the impact on how

democracies function. I mean, that's from Minneapolis was the breakthrough moment. I think the Epstein

survivor is seeing them with their own eyes that they went to Washington and they literally put

their bodies in the steps of the Capitol and said, some of us voted for Donald Trump and we are

not a hoax. We are real. And then they won over Republicans and Democrats, mostly Republican

women in Congress, was just this undeniable piece where you didn't have to, you didn't have to

rely on any stream of information. They were there before our eyes. And the images coming out of

Iran and coming out of Lebanon, those coming out of Gaza, those images are what they are.

Right. And so I think you're absolutely right. But then the other images, the fakes, right? The AI,

the AI generated images of the stories that you don't quite know. So you have to constantly

cross reference, where are you in your silos? Where you only get certain kinds of information. So

there's the fragmentation of the way in which citizens, ordinary people, get their information.

Then there's the assault on how we get the truth. It just makes for a very difficult way in which

democracy function. I mean, I think with Eddie's getting at something that makes these two pieces

that sound pretty interesting. I mean, this is Ron Johnson, who lives deep inside the whatever

fragment you're in, he's in it if you're MAGA, right? He is a Trump ally through and through.

And this is what he said about branding cars threats over the weekend.

But do you think it's the role of the government to police that kind of coverage from where they sit?

Yeah, I'm a big support of the First Amendment. I do not like the heavy hand of government,

no matter who's wielding it. So no, I'd rather the federal government stay out of the private

sector as much as possible. And really, the federal government's role is to protect our freedoms,

protect our constitutional rights. So even if you're not Ruth watching this program,

that was deep in the coverage of Ron Fox News.

Yeah. And using the heavy hand of the treason accusation or threat is really

or well-earned because what it's saying is that you are considered because somebody who betrays

the nation if you tell the American people the truth. And this is just a sign of how desperate

Donald Trump is. He's gotten into what I describe his autocratic backfire. He doesn't listen to people,

he has people around him who are sick of fans or not Middle Eastern specialists. And he embarked

on this grandiose fantasy and now he's in big trouble. And so that's when autocrats want to control

the message even more and they feel desperate if things get out. And so this is this or well-earn

thing that's going to backfire all the more, telling people that if you tell the truth, you're

betraying the nation and the inverse would be I guess you're a patriot if you're telling Donald

Trump's lies and trying to veil reality and hiding things from the American people. That's what

makes you a patriot now. Well, I mean, the tricky thing I think, Tim, is that

Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson have been two of the most scathing and lore ingram have been

scathing critics of the conduct of the war in Iraq. All three of them have teed off in the Trump

administration for, well, at least with Megan Kelly and Tucker for the war itself. And lore ingram

includes herself among the earliest and vocal critics of the strike against the Iranian girl

school. And visceral infighting is happening over there. And that shows, I guess what I was saying

earlier about how it's hard to give Megan Kelly or Tucker Carlson or lore ingram credit for

reality finding a way. But if things get so bad, the broken clock theory over there, I guess,

but like if things gets are so bad among their viewers that they feel like an order to maintain

audience, like they have to express their opposition to what the administration is doing. Like that

tells us something. It tells us something about how, you know, about the pushback that they're

receiving and about the real potential damage that is already happening or that they see possibly

happening to their own to their own voters in the case of Trump's own audience. And in the case of

those, you know, those commentators. So look, I just, I think that this, the crackdown that they're

trying with the media, or the crackdown that they're trying on the first amendment, let me say,

is effective in two ways. It's pretty effective in the micro, you know, and you can't tell or

may as a austere who was detained for a month or months over an op-ed that, you know, that they

haven't had some success going after people. So, so, you know, regular people have been crack

down on. It's had a chilling effect. You know, we've seen that and we've talked about that a lot

on the show, people who just aren't speaking out that would otherwise. But like at this big level,

the idea of like that they can control how people talk about the Iran war, you know, just by,

you know, putting their friends in charge of the networks and threatening journalists.

Maybe that could work sometime. I mean, it works in China, but it's not working so far for these

guys. Ruth, what happens next as you describe this as sort of the autocrats desperate phase?

Well, he's, he's already in phase two because phase one is that you, you're in your bubble.

You're not listening to anyone. Didn't he recently say I'm only constrained by my own mind,

which is really not reassuring? And so, he's this popularity's tanking. And I wrote an op-ed

for the New York Times published February 1st that said this is when autocrats go to war

because they need a distraction, right? So, we're already in that. But they're not able to

course correct. And so, that's what they do. They try and remake reality into what they need

it to be. And that's what we're seeing now while they're going after the press so aggressively.

Um, no one's going anywhere. We'll continue this conversation on the other side.

Also ahead, another key block of voters who help propel Donald Trump to the White House

is having a serious case of buyer's remorse. The betrayal, they say they feel

and how damaging it could be for Donald Trump and the Republicans in the midterms. Also ahead,

what many people are calling a threat by Donald Trump against athletes,

as America gets ready to host one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. We'll explain

later in the hour. Does the White House continues after quick break? Don't go anywhere.

Democrat or Republican, we cannot have the government

arbitrating truth or opinion. Mr. Chairman, my question is this. So long as there is a public

interest standard, shouldn't it be understood to encompass robust first amendment protections

to ensure that the FCC cannot use it to chill speech? Yes, Senator, I agree with you there.

So either Mr. Carter didn't mean what he said or changed his mind because in a post on Saturday

on Twitter, he warned that he would deny a revolt, government-issued licenses if broadcasters run

what that agency deems as, quote, fake news. So the double speak is in their own responses

to the questions from their own most prominent members of their political college.

Yeah, Rousse described it as Orwellian, but what we do know is that free speech applies to their

speech. Free speech is really a way in which to open up space or that they can engage in a kind

of rhetoric, a kind of discourse, tell a certain kind of story that sets up their political aims and

ambitions. Anyone who opposes it can be dealt with accordingly. Remember, Rousse said they flipped

what it means. They emptied out what we mean by what patriotism entails. That is patriotism.

Anything that seeks to hold an account, it holds all of that out to account. Any person who

holds a view contrary to it are seen as people who are not only not patriotists, but potentially traders.

Can I come back to Trump's threats in and of themselves? Because we're pushing him through a

first amendment, which is really important, but can I ask you, Tim, to push this through an attached

to reality, said for me? This is Trump, quote, not only was it not burning, it was not even shot at

Iran, that was better than to do that exclamation point. The story was knowingly fake, and in a certain

way, you can say that those media outlets that generated it should be brought up on charges for

treason, for the dissemination of false information. Trump went on to praise CAR for threatening the

licenses of these corrupt and highly unpatriotic news organizations, a bunch of bizarre punctuation

and capitalizations, and then CAR on Saturday threatens to revoke the broadcasting licenses.

I mean, we're all in a hurry. There is a lot happening. There is more important stuff

happening to the men and women of our military, but there is also a very public meltdown happening

of the commander-in-chief, and it blobs into his utterances about our allies, not wanting to

understand why Prime Minister has to talk to his people. I mean, maybe because when you talk to

your people, they'll tell you that the war in Iran will result in the straightforward

moose closing. I mean, the whole conduct is just out there. He's just naked in all of his

trumpness, and it isn't an unbelievable revealing moment for his political life.

Yeah, and I think that you just read one of his posts, his bleeds. I believe you did a couple

of thousand words last night. Sixteen hundred. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's like, this is not healthy behavior. It's not a way to run any organization,

forget about running a country. I mean, imagine if the principal at your kid's school was like

up at one in the morning, posting strange demands about what was going to happen. The next week,

I think you'd start looking to transfer them immediately, right? Or even less important things

than your kid's school. It isn't the sign of somebody who has control of his emotions, at least,

if not his faculties, and look, some of this stuff we've come to you to roll your eyes at

when he ends up tok going, right? Like the Greenland thing was really meaningful, you know,

to the people of Denmark. At some point, the chickens might come home to roost on that and

in that relationship. But like, also at the end of the day, the people in our country weren't

really affected besides, you know, those of us who are driven to the bottle at night having

to pay attention to his random musings, right? But this is serious. Like, this is very real.

The ramifications are real, obviously, for the men and women over there serving, for people at

home paying more at the pump, for our allies having to decide whether to help support a madman

in this crazy attempt to keep the straight-of-form moves open. So the gas prices in their country

can start to come back down. Because we've caused huge energy spikes across the world for our allies.

And yeah, and I don't think he's getting good information. And again, like, not getting good

information, you know, can be not that, can not end up mattering that much when it's about,

you know, domestic political concerns. But in this, and this is, this is too serious for that.

And, and I don't really see how it's going to get fixed. And I don't think any of us imagine

that in privacy, there's anyone in that crew of Hegseth, Vance, Rubio that's delivering bad news to

me. Yeah, I mean, Ruth, just give us an historical parallel to the public conduct that is

deeply erratic. So my book, Strongman, is full of quotes of people who tried to, who served or

were around Mussolini, Hitler, all of the dictators. And there's one quote from an industrialist who

later had to flee the nation. He said, for God's sake, don't tell anything to Hitler. He doesn't

want to hear. And then Mussolini's slogan was literally, it's Trump has stolen it. It was,

Mussolini is always right. And there were huge signs all over Rome and other cities that Mussolini

is always right all the time. And then he wasn't right. And it really lost the war. And everything

he did was against his generals' advice. He didn't listen to anyone. He micromanaged. And he

didn't want to accept reality, taking a turn that he hadn't expected. And so when Trump says,

oh, we were all shocked that Iran went after all these countries. Nobody expected that. Well,

people did expect that. And there are Middle Eastern experts who study for years to expect that.

You do war games. There's a thing called war games. And maybe he's the only person who's surprised

because he only listens to his own mind. And so this never ends well in history. And it causes

casualties that the American people should not have to sustain and not to mention the Lebanese

and everything else going on. And so it leads to tragedy simply put.

With Bengia, your indispensable voice is much appreciated, especially on days like today. Thank

you for starting us off. When we come back, Donald Trump's failure to bring down the costs of

anything and to keep America out of foreign forever wars is causing him to crater among another group

of voters who helped elect him this time. That's our next story. Don't go anywhere.

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I think I have tremendous support on this. This is something that's been incredible.

I have the best poll numbers I've ever had now and it's not because of this. I think we just,

you know, the economy is great. It's in a little bit of a, we take a little winding road

for a little while, but we have to wipe out the evil.

Quick fact check. His poll numbers are not great. They suck to use a political technical term.

He's at 35 to about 40%. On the question of whether the economy is good or excellent,

just 30% feel that way. So it was appropriating an economy of solid 10 points lower than

his overall approval rating. But he is desperately trying to make that true and claim that his

decision to start a war in Iran is not deeply unpopular. Unfortunately for him, the war at this

juncture is unpopular. And it's just the latest decision he's made that is causing a key

demographic group to regret voting for him 14 months ago, which of course fells trouble for

the Republican Party's chances in the November midterms. According to reporting in the Washington

Post between Donald Trump starting a war in Iran and his handling of the economy, young voters

have buyers remorse those who voted for him. This is what one voter told a focus group of young

voters outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, quote, I feel betrayed. I don't know why we are

fighting in Iran if we have never been attacked. I just don't understand why. Another young

voter cited Donald Trump's handling of the economy saying this quote, I wouldn't even say it's

living James Weas to 23 year old arcade technician from Morseville, North Carolina said of his

quote, it's more survival. And the numbers of polls paint an even darker picture for Donald Trump.

A Washington Post poll finds that 70% of 18 to 29 year olds disapprove of Donald Trump's handling

of the entire presidency, just 29% of them approve of him. We're back with Tim and Eddie.

Tim, I want to show you one other place where again, culture may even be leading

the news media's ability to capture how insane Trump's policies are. This is again from SNL

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Again, if we accept Halmann's edict that all politics is downstream from culture,

they are losing young people in a way that follows culture and maybe doesn't lead it.

Yeah, I think that's the first appearance for Bullseeman on Devon Whitehouse.

I'm sorry because I still have to lay on that.

I'm Harry Styles, right?

Harry Styles, love Harry. New record is good.

This is true across the board. I think that one thing that I try to tap into,

despite my advancing age and child, is like listening to some of the more right wing,

if you want to call it comedy, that you see on podcasters and YouTube.

I was listening to some of those guys over the weekend and there's just a lot to mock right now.

I mean, he's giving them a lot of material and in some ways, Ernest opposition is necessary,

but it's not maybe not sufficient for standing up to him.

I think that mocking is a really important element to it and I think it's harder for him to

combat in a lot of ways. Whether it's some of the Mahasillingness that you just showed,

the Epstein stuff or the war and the way this is spiraling out of control,

he's providing him a lot of fun.

Yeah, I think Eddie, the piece of it that to me bubbles up and makes it important indicators

is that law firms like Paul Weiss went down to Donald Trump and obeyed in advance,

capitulated to Donald Trump. The capitulation among universities where they let Trump

reach way in and make decisions that they never would have given to anybody who's a joke

or who's at 35% happen because of the illusion of power.

And as that illusion fades away, I guess what I'm watching for is to see if the courage of the

Epstein survivors, the courage of the people of Minneapolis and Minnesota becomes a national movement

because it might take courage to get through the next two years.

Or it may not be a national movement, but certainly provides examples for other moments of courage.

And we have to think about these institutions that capitulated so quickly,

they were probably using Trump to cover as cover to engage in their own version of self-correction.

So we have to begin to interrogate that capitulation a little bit more carefully.

I was just thinking as I was watching that and thinking about all the data that you were

dropping of a point by William Sloan Kaufflin. Kaufflin, right? He was the former-

God bless you for elevating my bowl seamen, Clint.

But I was thinking about it, you know, he's the former chaplain of Yale,

the former senior minister at Riverside. And he was talking about how young people had been

inundated with lies during the Vietnam War had been had lost fundamental trust.

And I want to connect this to the first segment, right? So when we begin to think about

this assault on democracy as such, and we see these young folks making a judgment,

not only of Trumpism, but of the country that it's broken.

What does that suggest? What does it foreshadow about their role and their participation

in the democratic process? Will they opt out? Will they just simply say, this is not for us?

They mock it, they may mock it, but what are the long-term implications of us being,

of us drowning in lies? Every time I see that, I get this image in my head that we're holding

ourselves together by a safety pin. And our babies are spiraling around us, not knowing where to go.

So you get that, and then you get in at FIU, the Republicans, those young folks, I think it was FIU

around the Nazis and the Nazi stuff that's circulating among Republicans. So I'm just wondering,

what does this mean? What does it suggest for our democracy in the long-term?

Tim, you want to try to answer that? Well, I think it's right to be vigilant when you think about this,

because it's like anything. You know, we'll have this initial reaction to Trumpism, right?

And I think that there's something that's happening that we're seeing, that it's a little bit

encouraging, at least, that which is folks are frustrated with that he's getting mocked,

you know, his status in the culture is being diminished. And that's a good sign. And I think

that'll be a good sign for the midterms. But you know, the question of what replaces that, I think that

this, you know, the, I'm trying to think of what the right Eddie Glodward would be. The moral,

the sinfulness in our culture, the moral weakness and degeneracy in our culture that

brought Trump here is not just going to be go away, and like disappear in a night. And I maybe

look at young voters, I think it's right to be worried, particularly on the mega side. If you look at

polls of them, like the youngest voters are the most radicalized on a lot of these cultural issues,

particularly around race and gender. And so, you know, I do think that there's like a lot of long-term

work that remains, you know, even as we kind of enjoy Trump's political standings start to

dissipate here. Yeah, I think the other thing about young voters is they are, they're,

they're a swing group of voters, right? And, and where magma made great gains, some of the ones

that are really stuck to the ideology, they're not the swing voters that we're talking about, right?

They're not the ones in the poll. In North Carolina that are really upset about the economy

and the military because the ones that voted for no forever wars and for a better economy are

not the ones that you're talking about who are really stuck and entrenched in the culture wars.

But it is, it is interesting to watch just about every group lose both numbers and intensity

for Donald Trump so early on. Tim, thank you for being here for all of this. You're the perfect

person for the, the bullseaming clip. I'm so glad it was us. When we come back, there were already

big questions about the United States hosting the World Cup this summer. And that was before Donald

Trump's latest bananas remarks. What he said and why people are outraged and worried. We'll

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This was back in December. What you're watching is the first ever FIFA International Peace Prize

is being awarded to Donald Trump. FIFA, the Federation of World Soccer, stated at the time that

the award was intended to recognize individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary

actions for peace. And by doing so, have united people across the world. That really happened,

and Trump really liked it. Now, just months out from the World Cup, FIFA finds itself trying to

persuade their very special Peace Prize winner into allowing the team of the nation he started a

war with to play. Last week, Donald Trump and a Truth Social Post managed both to invite and

threaten the Iranian team, saying this, quote, the Iran National Soccer team is welcome to the World

Cup, but I really don't believe it is appropriate that they be here for their own life and safety end

quote. Iran is set to play three matches on U.S. soil in Los Angeles and Seattle. Iran is yet to

formally pull out of the tournament set to begin in June. I want to bring in National Sports

Columnist, Professor of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Kevin Blackestone is back with

us, Eddie still here. Kevin, I mean, this is crazy, and this is muddled even by Trumpian standards.

You can come, but you might not make it out alive. What a welcome that. It's absolutely stunning,

but I guess we shouldn't be stunned by anything these days. You're the host to the largest

tournament, sports tournament, one sport tournament in the world. You won that right. This country did

somehow, some way with your neighbors in Canada and your neighbors in Mexico and everyone who

makes it this far advances this far should expect to be treated fine. They're treated like

guests and you enjoy their athleticism and their their wins and you agonize with their losses.

This is a grand tournament. And to say that about Iran that you may not protect them when they

are here is just shameful. And I would also wonder is Iranians under attack in this country?

I don't think so. I think everyone here is welcoming them and wants to see all of these teams play.

So this is this is just more more troubling and I should also point out, reiterate something that I

wrote. I think last summer that this administration has made our country an unfit host for these

global sporting events, whether it's FIFA, which starts in about three months or whether it's

the 2028 Olympics, with the way that we have this administration has treated immigrants, treated

people of color, treated people who speak a different language, even treated its own citizens.

We are not a fit host for the rest of the world right now.

Let me come at this on the FIFA side as well, Kevin. This is this is from the athletic.

Infantina was taken every step imaginable and unimaginable to please an appeased Donald Trump.

He opened an office for FIFA in New York City's Trump Tower and abandoned FIFA's plans and extensive

negotiations to hold the World Cup draw in Las Vegas instead, switching it to the Kennedy Center

on Trump's recommendation. Along the way, he has effectively become an extended member of Trump's

traveling entourage, joining him on trips to Qatar and Saudi Arabia last May, which caused him to turn

up several hours late to FIFA's own Congress in Paraguay. This triggered a walkout by European

executives who accused Infantino of accommodating private political interests ahead of the sport he

is supposed to represent. He claimed he was in the Gulf region acting in FIFA's best interests.

This is a question about, this is obviously the head of FIFA, a question of his fitness for

this role as well. I mean, the peace prize ends up being a joke and a ridicule here, but there are

places where it can note some credibility onto Donald Trump. That is amazing. Infantino

apologized for what happened to workers who were building the World Cup facilities at least.

In Qatar, he also chummed up with Vladimir Putin. That is who this guy is. This is who Donald

Trump is to him. The IOC opened an investigation into his chumming up with Donald Trump around

that peace prize and wearing a political slogan, wearing that hat that we've all become

way too familiar with, because FIFA says that politics are not supposed to be a part of their games,

yet with this head of FIFA, clearly they are. It's amazing, Eddie, that there is still sort of a

bottomless pit of people who will jump in the trough with Trump. Yeah, it gives us a sense of

the depth of depravity that ensnairs us these days. I'm just thinking about what, you know, sport,

the World Cup, in the midst of all of the darkness of our days, sports offers us these opportunities.

But Donald Trump, this isn't sort of the last fashion. This is the first up he reaches for.

You know, can you imagine? I mean, he even tries to occupy those spaces that allow us just for a moment

to root for our teams, to feel a sense of all exuberance and joy, as well as the agony of defeat,

as they used to say on ABC World Sport. It just shows you how he just wants to infect every aspect

of our lives and steal all of our joy. Yeah, it also shows that what a sort of child-like

brokenness there is, if they gave him a fake prize, and that has to be part of every story

that we tell. Kevin Blackisner has great to see you. To be continued, as you said, this is an event

that's set to get underway in about three months. We'll stand top of this with your help. Eddie,

thank you for spending the hour here with me. When we come back, a big development, and Donald

Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center, we'll tell you about it next.

The Board of the Kennedy Center voted today to shut down. Donald Trump had urged his hand-picked

board to close the performing arts center so that he can complete the renovation project. He has

fixated on, claiming it is on the verge of collapse, but it is Trump's politicization of the

Kennedy Center that has sped its collapse. Donald Trump affixed his name to the Kennedy Center

and installed a loyalist named Rick Grinnell as his president. Grinnell is now stepping down

after a dramatic tenure there from the Washington Post reporting on Grinnell's exit. Quote,

the center has experienced reams of cancellations from artists and been abandoned by audience members

disturbed by its direction. Those performances that still take place often play to semi-empty houses.

A former president of the center's defined Grinnell's term to the Washington Post as, quote,

the least productive in the history of the Kennedy Center. We'll stay on top of that and

have the break for us. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for letting us into your homes

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