Philadelphia DA criticizes Trump's plan to renovate ballroom amid taxpayer concerns
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Attorney General Todd Blanche scolded Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for his comments on Tuesday, saying the White House ballroom ordered to be constructed by President Donald Trump will be “blown up” in an “official ceremony” in the future. Krasner said he would keep some of the debris from the hypothetical explosion as a paperweight on his desk. During an appearance on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom, Blanche called Krasner’s remarks “disgusting” and suggested he worry about his city’s problems rather than the White House ballroom.
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Fox NewsPhiladelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Tuesday he was going to keep a piece of President Donald Trump's White House ballroom as a paperweight "after we all blow it up."
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"In about 10 to 15 years, we are all going to be sitting here with smiles on our faces," Krasner said, according to video footage obtained by WCAU. "And I'm going to have a paperweight sitting on my desk. And do you know what that paper weight's going to be? It's going to be a piece of the ballroom after we blow it up."
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Washington Examiner“I’m gonna have a paperweight sitting on my desk,” Krasner said. “You know what that paperweight is gonna be? It’s gonna be a piece of a ballroom after we all blow it up. That’s what it’s gonna be.”
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“Just so we’re clear, in an official ceremony, we’re gonna blow it up, and we’re going to give the taxpayers their money back by selling old pieces as paper weights,” Krasner said. “And I will have one on my desk.”
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Fox NewsKrasner did specify that the envisioned demolition would be "in an official ceremony, just to be clear, in an official ceremony we're gonna blow it up and we're gonna give the taxpayers their money back by selling old pieces as paperweights, and I'm gonna have one on my desk."
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Tied up in the proposed $250 million renovation are three new tributes to Trump, which the Kennedy Center board (stacked with Trump appointees) voted to add earlier this month: the text “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” and “endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund” on the building’s facade, and the renaming of the Kennedy Center grounds as “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
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NPR NewsThe board called the Kennedy Center "embarrassing to the nation's capital" and a "sick and poorly run facility." Lawyers for the Justice Department also argued that the board and President Trump, who was named as the complex's chairman in February 2025, should be allowed to move ahead with a two-year renovation that would shut down most of the complex's performance venues and cost at least $250 million.
BBC NewsPublished The Trump administration has threatened to demolish the Kennedy Center if planned renovations for the performing arts venue are not allowed to be carried out, court documents show.
USA TodayTrump has argued the Kennedy Center is so 'decrepit' it must be renovated with recognition for his fundraising, even though Congress appropriated $257 million for the project.
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Beatty’s lawyers made an emergency request to Cooper to block Trump’s “intolerable” plan to close the venue during construction and return his name to the façade.
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NPR NewsLast Friday, Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, filed an emergency motion asking U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper to stop the board from its plans to put Trump's name back on the front of the complex. The board's latest proposal, which the group approved in a meeting on Aug. 13, would put Trump's name on the entryway sign twice, and again on a third location on the complex's grounds.
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What does Trump’s name have to do with the renovations? According to the DOJ filing, “an order blocking the Board from appropriately recognizing President Trump will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop.”
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BBC News"An order blocking the Board from appropriately recognising President Trump," the lawyers argued, "will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop".
7 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Fox News Krasner, who has previously called Trump a fascist and said he would hunt down Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, made the comments while speaking at George Washington's historic home in Philadelphia during the city's annual slavery commiseration, according to WCAU.
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02 The Hill Trump picks new chairman for agency overseeing ballroom, arch construction President Trump on Wednesday named Mark Paoletta the chair of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), a panel overseeing his White House ballroom and Washington arch projects. Paoletta, the general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will succeed Will Scharf as chair of the NCPC. Scharf is set to take…
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03 Washington Examiner “It’s disgusting that a district attorney in Philadelphia, who, by the way … has its own problems, is so focused on what the president is doing in the White House,” Blanche said.
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04 USA Today “This is a breathtaking assault on the rule of law,” wrote lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who serves on the Kennedy Center’s board. “It is delusional. And it must stop.”
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05 BBC News Attorneys from the justice department have also asked for President Donald Trump's name to be put back on the building after it was removed in June following a court order.
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06 NPR News The court papers were submitted by attorneys from the DOJ's civil division late Monday in advance of an emergency hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The hearing is part of a federal lawsuit by Rep. Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, againstTrump and the Kennedy Center's current board, most of whom were appointed by the president.
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07 Vox Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump is threatening that if he can’t have the Kennedy Center, no one can.
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- foxnews
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- thehill
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- vox