The Kennedy Center has been forced to cancel their annual New Year’s Eve concert as more artists pull out to boycott President Donald Trump changing the historic venue’s name to the “Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” 

Jazz supergroup The Cookers announced Monday that they wouldn’t be performing on New Year’s Eve. 

“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the band said in a statement, refusing to name Trump but alluding to their reasoning for pulling out. “We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”

One member of the group, saxophonist Billy Harper, had already made his feelings more clear. 

“I would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing,” he said in a previous interview. “After all the years I spent working with some of the greatest heroes of the anti-racism fight like Max Roach and Randy Weston and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stanley Cowell, I know they would be turning in their graves to see me stand on a stage under such circumstances and betray all we fought for, and sacrificed for, but also betraying all the listeners that believed (and still do) in our cause and our music.”

Trump-appointed Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell dismissed The Cookers as “far left political activists.” 

The Cookers’ withdrawal comes just days after the Kennedy Center was forced to cancel its annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam due to what Grenell described as “dismal ticket sales.” The concert was free.

The Kennedy Center has been in disarray since Trump’s hostile, anti-woke takeover earlier this year, as high profile creatives and performers from Issa Rae to Rhiannon Giddens cancel their performances. And ticket sales have suffered, too—pointing to even darker days ahead for a once highly regarded cultural institution.  

The president has repeatedly elevated posts made by a parody account mocking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, suggesting that he either enjoys the hyperbolic messaging or that he isn’t aware of the difference between Leavitt’s real account and the one making fun of her.

Donald Trump has already shared several screenshots from the account, @WHLeavitt, to his Truth Social page, despite the fact that it’s named “Fan Karoline Leavitt.” The account bio also reads “parody account,” a designation flagged by X.

One of the account’s posts that the president recirculated read: “BREAKING: Fulton County admits 315K 2020 votes lacked required poll worker signatures—a major rule violation.”

“Republicans demand restitution for Rudy Giuliani, hit with charges & $148M fine for contesting GA election,” it continued. “Do you support giving his money back?”

Another post by the parody page claimed that “Afghan ‘refugees’ in Texas want to ban Americans from eating pork and drinking beer because Allah has decided so.”

It then asked its followers whether they supported “deporting all Somalis, all Afghans, all Islamic refugees and all illegals,” providing two voting options: “Big yes” or “no.”

One post that Trump did not reshare, but maybe should have tipped him off about the account’s nature, asked followers to rate Leavitt’s butt.

Trump does spend an obscene amount of time on social media. His habits are practically akin to American teens, who spend hours online to the detriment of their mental health, according to a 2024 report by the American Psychological Association.

But his inability—or perhaps, callous disregard—to fact-check whether the posts were actually made by Leavitt raises several concerns. Firstly, it raises the question as to just how extreme Trump officials’ rhetoric can be before their leader raises an eyebrow or tries to reel them in.

But it also highlights Trump’s thoughtless approach to navigating his primary communication platform with the American public, and sparks doubt as to whether or not Trump is actually aware of what he’s consuming.

The 79-year-old has repeatedly claimed that he is in pristine condition, brushing off public alarm over his deteriorating body. But his health has been a topic of concern since he was on the campaign trail, when reports circulated that he couldn’t remember the contents of cognitive exams he claimed to ace.

The CIA carried out a drone strike bombing on Venezuelan soil last week, making it the first U.S. attack inside the country that we know of.

The strike, reported first on Monday night by CNN, hit a dock on the Venezuelan coast that the U.S. administration claims was being used by Tren de Aragua for narcotrafficking. The Trump administration also claimed that the dock was empty when the strike was carried out, resulting in zero casualties.

While Donald Trump vastly expanded the CIA’s ability to act independently, they still do not have the authority to carry out land strikes in Venezuela—although that means nothing when they’ve already extrajudicially murdered dozens of fishermen in Venezuelan waters and quite literally stolen an oil tanker.

While Trump alluded to hitting a “big facility where ships come from” last week, he refused to confirm or deny whether that attack was the one we now know was carried out by the CIA.

This is yet another alarming escalation of aggression against Venezuela. The Trump administration has gone back and forth in its justifications for their acts of war. They’ve claimed that the Venezuelan government is a malicious narcostate, that they want to make Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “

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