Trump is no JFK

A sign at the protest Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Thousands turned out Friday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to join hands and form a human chain around the JFK building and listen briefly to politicians and others decry Trump's attempt to destroy the city by erecting ugly monuments and slapping his name on the ones which still stand before he tears them down.

"Hands Off the Arts" quickly called for a protest after Trump's plans to destroy the Kennedy Center surfaced in a photo through an airplane window. (May that photographer be nominated for the Pulitzer.)

Thousands gathered and police kept a low profile. The trio of National Guard members usually found at the Foggy Bottom Metro station were nowhere to be seen nor were any Guard members present Friday night at the KC, which, until Trump, was a lively venue for daily and evening shows, 365 days/year, now fallen silent with the destruction of its board by a fake arts enthusiast.



Before the demonstration Sept. 18, 2026, fencing went up around the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

Where there's Trump, these likelinesses will follow. At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 18, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

In case readers have not seen Trump's Tarp covering President Kennedy's name /By Patricia Leslie


Tara Hoot (center, in red) at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


Drag queen Tara Hoot (she was!) was the moderator Friday night when Washington's Gay Men's Chorus sang and U.S. Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) addressed the crowd, saying he'd never known anyone as insecure as Trump who demands that his name go up on public buildings. 

Trump's motto: "It's my way or the highway."

Other speakers Friday night included a union official and D.C.'s Democratic congressional candidate, Robert White. 

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026, a fake Trump came to present his constant message at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

After the talks ended, the crowd took off, moving slowly with the flow to find waiting hands to clasp at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie
The sign says "Take Care Of This House. Be Always on Call. For This House Is The Hope Of Us All." At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

Moving to find hands for the human chain at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

On the way to form a human chain around the building at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie
Les miserables marched to save the union at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


Spilling off the front plaza at the JFK Center Sept. 18, 2026 on to F Street, NW, "les misérables" joined hands to stop the destruction of the JFK Memorial. The circular buildings comprise the Watergate complex/By Patricia Leslie

Crossing Rock Creek Parkway at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


On Rock Creek Parkway where motorists honked their horns in support of the people at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

On the Potomac River side of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, motorists sounded their horns in support of the people marching to save the center at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie
Inside the "Reach," all is quiet Sept. 18, 2026 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At an empty hall at the "Reach" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 18, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

An empty entrance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where millions enjoyed performances annually before Trump tore out its heart and soul, but when Trump's term ends, a heart transplant will be conducted and the center's soul, restored/By Patricia Leslie

A silent Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 18, 2026/By Patricia Leslie
 The D.C. Activist Street Band played on with their wonderful New Orleans flavor at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


The crowd danced to the tunes of the D.C. Activist Street Band at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

A photographer at the JFK Statue at the Center Friday night, the statue, a gift in celebration of the Center's 50th anniversary, Sept. 1971-2021, from David M. Rubenstein, the Kennedy Center chair 2010-2025 until he was ousted by Trump.

At the statue I met a couple from California in town for a few days who happily joined the throng, seeing signs around town announcing the event, they said. They were astonished to hear of Trump's proposed destruction of the JFK Memorial. And of the golf course. And to build the arch. 

Other people at the statue asked each other:  "Where were you when ...?"



patricialesli@gmail.com

No White House Ballroom!

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

Jon Golinger of Public Citizen shows letters received in opposition to the Trump ballroom while citizens protest the ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026,/By Patricia Leslie

Jon Golinger of Public Citizens shows boxes of copies of 35,000 messages, of which 97% opposed Trump's ballroom, at the citizens protest today in Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026 /By Patricia Leslie

Citizens protest the Trump ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

John Bolton's hilarious 'Room' of their own

You just thought Trump's White House was chaotic. Readers, not only was it chaotic, but John Bolton is here to tell you it was lots more than that!

I may not agree with the author's politics, but I can sure laugh at his anecdotes from his short (17 months) tenure in the Wild House. It's nothing short of rockhouse madness.

Bolton must have carried a secret microphone/recorder inside his breast pocket for his recollections of so many fine details of the day-to-day chaos in Trumpland, described in The Room Where It Happened.

I detected no conceit, no self-applause, no boastings in his memoir. When Trump complimented Bolton's "'troika of tyranny'" speech, Bolton reminded him that one of the president's own speechwriters had written it (p. 249). 

Bolton's snide comments ricochet throughout the book; some of the highlights:

He writes more than once:  "You couldn't make this up" referring to the daily frenzy engulfing the administration (258). 

His background on Venezuela and the Middle East makes all those WAPO editorials easier to understand. 

"God only knew who he [Trump] was talking to or whether he had just gotten a case of the vapors* because things were still uncertain." 

After an attack in the Gulf of Oman, Trump believed "that if you pretended bad things hadn't happened, perhaps no one else would notice" (392).

("I found these weekly trade meetings so chaotic I largely left them for {Charles} Kupperman to attend, which punishment he didn't deserve, but life is hard" (460).)  Kupperman was the deputy national security advisor. 

At the G20 trade summit in Buenos Aires, no one knew "from one minute to the next" what Trump would say. He envied Xi Jinping's lifelong term as Chinese ruler and told Xi, "that people" in the U.S. were clamoring for an end to the president's two-term limit. 

Writes Bolton: "I was aware of no such chatter" (297).

Bolton didn't like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin too much. 

At the G20, Bolton writes Mnuchin spent the day "beavering" with China's #3 man, Liu He (296).  After all, Mnuchin was a "panda hugger"(290).

Munchin got all excited at China's agreement to purchase more soybeans "just as if we were a Third World commodity supplier to the Middle Kingdom" (297).

During the Venezuelan revolution, Mnuchin worried about the banking sector and the risk to credit card companies. Bolton reminded him that the thousands protesting in the streets, "the poorest people" did not have, nor were they "thinking about Visa and Mastercard!" (269). 

Bolton was only too happy to announce to principals that he thought "Treasury was not entitled to its own foreign policy" like Mnuchin desired (273). 

Mnuchin spent so much time in the White House, on presidential trips and in California ("who for some reason was in California again" (258)*) that they "'hardly recognize him in his building,' said [John] Kelly disdainfully" (241).

Mnuchnin, was "basically a Democrat" who maintained "his campaign for doing nothing" (252).

Bolton was not a big fan of Defense Secretary James Mattis either whom he continually portrays as a cry baby. 

If "his view didn't prevail, which was standard operating procedure for him: stress that timing was urgent, which is what Mattis said when it suited him, and predict doom and gloom if he didn't get his way" (176).  "Mattis obstructionism at work" (190) ....Trump never liked him either: "a Democrat." 

Preparing for the meeting with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Bolton worried about the "daily explosions everyone became inured to in the Trump White House."

Bolton says another Trump-Kim Jong Um summit looked "depressingly inescapable" for Trump was hot-to-trot and get a deal done with Kim. It was not to be.

With his good buddy, Shinzo Abe of Japan, Trump lamented the fact that Abe's father was unsuccessful as a World War II kamikaze pilot, forgetting that, had his father achieved his goal, there would have been no good buddy Abe, born after the war. "Mere historical details." says Bolton (345).

Remember the columnist, Charles Krauthammer (1950 - 2018)? Not a Trump fan. He told Bolton he'd been wrong to characterize Trump as an 11-year-old: "'I was off by ten years'" (8).

While leaving the White House after his job interview, Bolton writes he felt like he was in a college dorm, with people going in and out doors. Wasn't there a crisis underway to try and repeal Obamacare? Bolton didn't recognize the place (18).

At the Trumps' first state ceremony with French President Emmanuel and Mrs. Macron: "Sadly for the press, nothing went wrong" (68). 

"Later, the black-tie state dinner was very nice, if you like eating until 10:30" p.m. With the John Kellys, the Boltons skipped the after-dinner entertainment and went home (70).

At Trump's Turnberry* Scottish golf resort, Greenpeace* breached security by flying an "ungainly contraption," akin to a "a bicycle with wings" hauling a flowing banner which said Trump was "below par." The Secret Service hustled Trump and later, Bolton and Kelly, inside before anyone could look at it too long, although Bolton wanted to prolong his viewing.

On a visit to London and Scotland, Trump called the US and UK relationship, "'the highest level of special,'" which Bolton called "a new category."

Trump repeatedly instructed his staff to avoid criticizing Russia too much publicly (179).

In a "discussion" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump told the Turkish leader that Christians were "going crazy" about Turkey's incarceration of American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and Erdogan responded that Moslems in Turkey were "going crazy" and Trump interrupted him to say "they were going crazy all over the world."  

Writes Bolton: "If possible, the conversation went downhill thereafter" (184-185).

Don't forget Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN. Not only were the Turks unable to understand what she was trying to negotiate, neither could the Trump team (186).

The "Haley Problem" included her belief that the US ambassador to the UN was the Secretary of State. 

From everything Bolton heard "including directly from Trump, she and Tillerson [Rex Tillerson, secretary of state] cordially detested one another (well, maybe not cordially)." She wanted to visit India and visit the Dalai Lama:  "The purpose of this trip was unclear, other than getting a photo op with the Dalai Lama, always good for an aspiring pol" (238).

When Bolton was at the Justice Department, "we called the Southern District [of New York] the 'Sovereign District of New York' because it so often resisted control by 'Main Justice,' let alone the White House" (185-186).   

Discussion about the Korean War and its aftermath involved a continual re-education of the president as Bolton tried to enlighten him about that history.  

Why "were we still there?" Trump complained. "Every few days, someone would inadvertently press a button somewhere, and Trump would be repeating his lines from the same movie soundtrack" (210).

It's easy to understand why Trump did everything he could to stop, to stall, to change the content of this book (491). Like so many tomes, it reveals him to be the Emperor of No Content. 

* Although there are several references to Mnuchin and his trips to California, California is omitted from the otherwise good index, as are other words (vapors, Greenpeace, etc.). 

Coming up: I rate the Trump books!

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: Bob Woodward's 'Rage'

Readers, he's much worse than you thought.

The first quarter of Rage is rather ho-hum, nothing much new as Bob Woodward sets the stage.  Momentum picks up when the Trump interviews begin.

This, with Michael Cohen's Disloyal, serve up a man as scatter-brained, tempestuous, vindictive, immature, hateful and superficial as one can possibly imagine any fictional character to be, but he is real, and, praise God, soon to leave Washington, D.C. for, we hope, forever.  Goodbye, you n'er do well!  2021 is looking better and better.

These books confirm my observation that Trump is not that smart. He's more like a toddler throwing temper tantrums. It's all for him or nothing. "I want my way! I want my way!" he bellows, and like a subservient parent, the media gives him "his way" (Cohen). The media elected him, says Cohen. Wait, this is a review of Woodward's book, not Cohen's. Where was I? (Now on to Bolton's.)

Interspersed in Rage are sections on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who, of course, plays a key role as coronavirus takes the spotlight and control from Trump and his sycophants.  The revelations about covid-19's strangulation of the U.S. brings one of the book's few humorous parts when Dr. Fauci describes Trump on page 354:  "His attention span is like a minus number.... His sole purpose is to get re-elected." 

No wonder Trump kicks up a fuss when he loses!  He will not believe it, and no one will tell the emperor he has no clothes.  He's nothing but a blunderbuss who recalcitrant Retrumplicans (Chris Cuomo) are afraid to challenge since the bully may sick a sickophant (sic!) their way! 

Mr. Woodward and Trump give serious discussion to the possibility that China deliberately set the U.S. on virus fire mimicking the SARS outbreak in 2002.

Mr. Woodward's epilogue ends:

 "When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion:  Trump is the wrong man for the job."  

For a second Rage edition, may I suggest the addition of a leaderboard for readers like me who find it somewhat difficult to keep all the players straight.   

Also, a correction for the location of the Feb. 11, 2020 event (page 244) found in "Source Notes" (p. 411) with Dr. Fauci at the Aspen Institute: It was held here, at Aspen's offices in Washington, D.C. not in Colorado . I know because I was there, and although unlikely, it is possible that the panel presented the same subject on the same day at the Aspen offices in Colorado. (One of the panelists was Ron Klain, later appointed to be President-Elect Biden's chief of staff. Also, it was the same day coronavirus got its official name, covid-19.) 

About the number of presidents (p. 391):  Although there have been 45 presidencies, there have only been 44 presidents since Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms (1885-1889 and 1893-1897).

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: Michael Cohen's 'Disloyal' is must-read

Dear Michael Cohen,

I waited weeks to get your book on the reserve list at the public library and told everyone  when I got in the middle of it, that it's a "must."  I have bought two copies for Christmas gifts, one for my Trumper son, a new attorney, so he can see how you developed and used your lawyerly skills, and the other for my pal, Kim.

At the end just now, all I could say was "WOW." Right on, bro'!  I hope you earn billions from sales.

Whether or not you like Mr. Cohen for ratting on his Boss Man, this is must reading (for the hardcore).

Although no collaborator is mentioned for the book, I suspect one existed  since Disloyal  is exceedingly well assembled and flows mightily down the Trump sewage tank, telling all, an insight into Trump World which pretty well matches the sense we've gained from four years of watching what is perceived as White House chaos and confirmed to be just that by Mr. Cohen.

Disloyal, A Memoir, is a page-turner, all right.

That Ted Cruz can even stand to speak to Trump or be near him after the merciless attack Trump and Team made on Mr. Cruz's father, is shocking. It all began with National Enquirer's David Pecker's assertion that a man photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald bore a resemblance to Mr. Cruz's father and away the conspirators flew.  (Mr. Cruz was a preacher who got under the Trump team's skin.)  Beyond the Enquirer, the story failed to launch until Trump ignited it on, where else? Fox.

Or, the Trumps' creation of birtherism is disgusting, pure and simple, all lies, fitting for this administration, but how it "birthed" the slander is astonishing.

Mr. Cohen says the media elected Trump in 2016 with free press every time Trump did anything remotely outrageous which, as we know, occurs daily.  Often, more than once.

Melania knows her husband is a cheater but Trump tells Mr. Cohen, "I can always get another wife."  

That Michael Cohen's beloved family has held firm to their husband and father in the wake of all the Trump cheats and lies is testimony to a family's endurance and will to combat Evil.

Mr. Cohen lays it all out and takes no pride in his fall to hell where he says the Trump cult resides, in adoration of the master, unable to stop gulping Trump's Kool-Aid.  Mr. Cohen accurately predicted Trump would never leave office willingly or with any traditional grace which cannot be a surprise to anyone.

BTW, I read most of Brian Stelter's Hoax, but more than halfway through, I asked myself:  "Why do you care about Fox?" and ended it right then and there.  Too many anonymous quotes are found herein, but I love Mr.  Stelter's Sunday show, Reliable Sources, and would not miss it. I wonder why CNN didn't use him on E-night.

Next up: Bob Woodward's Rage 

Patricialesli@gmail.com

The day after in Washington, D.C.

A proud moment in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

Nov. 8, 2020, Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, where St. John's Episcopal Church stands at the center of it all. boarded up and the building closed but the church conducts on-site services in Virginia and the District and offers online programs and classes/Patricia Leslie

At the corner of H and 16th streets, NW at St. John's Episcopal Church,
Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

The side entrance of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020, on H Street NW. The Smithsonian Institution has requested the painted windows, all made by black artists, when they come down and the church building re-opens/Patricia Leslie

The sign says: "IT'S TIME TO THROW OUT THE GARBAGE - DUMP TRUMP - SWEEP HIM OUT,"  Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

Making street signs in the street at Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

Is it just me that many of Trump's while male supporters all look like Harley-Davidson riders? There was one at Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020, under no threat by anyone/Patricia Leslie

The rare Trump supporter who drew barely any notice at Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

There was dancin' in the street at Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

At St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, where the middle sign reads: AZ+ NV+ GA+ PA+ = DEMOCRACY. The sign on the far right reads: We (heart) Math! 74,811,378 - 70,554,537 = WE WON, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

This sign on the fence on H Street, NW says:  THANKS TRUMP - YOU MADE ME INTO AN ACTIVIST across the H Street NW entrance at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

The Washington Monument in the distance from Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

The sign on the fence surrounding Lafayette Park on H Street, NW says:  i WANT YOU TO PROTECT AMERICAN DEMOCRACY FROM AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL TRUMP COUP D'ETAT! Lafayette Square, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Nov. 8, 2020/Patricia Leslie

The White House fortress erected by the National Park Service upon the direction of the Secret Service (and costing U.S. taxpayers, $?) at the intersection of 15th Street, NW, and Pennsylvania Avenue where President Bill Clinton played Sunday street hockey with regulars, now blocked to keep citizens out/Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com