00:00The 48th Kennedy Center honorees are outstanding people, an outstanding group, incredible.
00:08We can't wait to celebrate the Kennedy Center honors.
00:14It'll be in December. It'll be on CBS.
00:18In a few short months since I became chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center,
00:22we have completely reversed the decline of this cherished national institution.
00:28It was being run down. Money wasn't being spent properly.
00:35They were building things they shouldn't have built that nobody wanted instead of taking care of the great gem that it is.
00:40You look at the marble, look at the quality of the marble and the things that with a little fix up and a little work,
00:46we can make it unbelievable. These columns, when you see them the next time, they'll be magnificent.
00:52I mean, we have some great plans for this. The bones are so good.
00:55The bones of a building. If you don't have the bones, you might as well forget it.
01:01I'm working in another building, I think, called the White House.
01:04We're fixing it up so beautifully. It needed it.
01:07It's been many, many years since it's been properly taken care of.
01:10It's incredible. One of the great places of the world.
01:12Maybe, I mean, truly, to me, is there anything else even close?
01:16But we're doing that and doing some other things, and we're going to also fix up a place called Washington, D.C.
01:24We're going to make it so beautiful again.
01:26We're going to be redoing the parks, redoing the grass.
01:29You know, grass is a lifetime like people have a lifetime.
01:32And the lifetime of this grass has long been gone.
01:36When you look at the parks where the grass is old, tired, exhausted, we're going to redo the grass with the finest grasses.
01:47I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses, and if you don't have good grass, you're not in business.
01:52Very long, Lindsey Graham.
01:54By the way, you have very good poll numbers, Lindsey.
01:56I just saw congratulations.
01:57But a few short months ago, I became chairman of the Kennedy Center, and we completely reversed it.
02:07We reversed what was happening.
02:09We ended the woke political programming, and we're restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world.
02:19This has the potential to be anywhere in the world.
02:22We're going to make it something that people can't even believe.
02:24We have some unbelievable plans, and ultimately, it's about the talent you get, though.
02:29You know, you can have a beautiful building.
02:32You can have nice marble walls.
02:34You can have nicely done columns, as I was saying.
02:37But if you don't have the talent on the stage, then we're going to get the best talent in the world.
02:42To that end, the world-renowned musical Les Mis had a phenomenal five-week sold out run this summer,
02:48beat projected revenues by 35 percent, and we've raised over $10 million in private funds from a lot of generous donors.
02:57And we closed the $26 million budget shortfall that they had before we got here.
03:05And with the help of Congress, we secured the critical funding necessary to rebuild the building and to—we're going to get all brand-new, highest-level seats, magnificent seats, and it's going to be all new.
03:19We could have taken the existing ones and do a little paint job, a little fabric, but it's not the same thing.
03:25So we'll be taken out next season.
03:28All of the seats will be taken out.
03:32The room is being completely rebuilt.
03:35And I just want to thank the Republicans in the Senate, headed by Lindsay in that case.
03:40Lindsay was very much—she's a big fan of this building.
03:43And they got a record $257 million that's going to go toward renovations that the building really needs.
03:53And all of the exterior is going to be incredible.
03:55It's going to be exciting.
03:57So I thank you very much and thank all of your Republican senators.
04:00I don't think we had too many Democrat votes, probably.
04:02You never have.
04:03We don't have Democrats voting even for crime.
04:06But I shouldn't make this political because they made the Academy Awards political and they went down their tubes.
04:12So they'll say, Trump made it political.
04:14But I think if we make it our kind of political, we'll go up, okay?
04:17Let's see if I'm right about that.
04:20But I want to thank the executive director for an incredible job.
04:23He's done great.
04:25He's been with me for just about the beginning.
04:28And everything he's touched has been good.
04:30He was on high intelligence.
04:32He worked in low intelligence and high intelligence.
04:35He did better with the high intelligent people.
04:38But he's been fantastic.
04:40He's the executive director, Rick Grinnell, for his work.
04:43Thank you very much, Rick.
04:44Unbelievable job.
04:45And as well as Lindsay and all the people that helped us in Congress, I want to thank.
04:54And the Senate has been incredible.
04:56By the way, Leader Thune has been unbelievable.
05:03And Speaker Mike Johnson, these are great people.
05:08What we're doing with the great big beautiful bill is you're going to see a whole different country.
05:13You're seeing it already.
05:14We're coming in.
05:15We're trillions of dollars is coming in from tariffs from all over the world,
05:20from countries that took advantage of our country.
05:23They were they thought we were children.
05:26They took advantage of us for decades.
05:28And now the money is flowing to us.
05:31And we have we've become the hottest country anywhere in the world.
05:35But the Kennedy Center board members, many of whom I knew and many of whom I put on the board.
05:42And it's an outstanding it's as good a board as I've ever seen.
05:47And on the board also and some people that are doing an incredible job.
05:51One in particular is Attorney General Pam Bondi.
05:54The job she's doing is incredible.
05:56Thank you very much.
05:57Long beyond the Kennedy Center.
05:59The Kennedy Center is the easy part.
06:02She's incredible.
06:03And she's you're going to see a big change in Washington crime stats very soon.
06:07Oh, they're not the stats that they gave because they turned out to be a total fraud.
06:10The real stats, the stats went through the roof.
06:13You know, they had a man that was forced to put up stats like they were doing better.
06:17They're not doing better.
06:18Crime is the worst it's ever been.
06:19But it's it started as of about yesterday.
06:23It started to you see a big change and people are feeling safe already.
06:27I have it.
06:27So many calls.
06:28Thank you, sir.
06:30They were afraid to walk out.
06:31They're not afraid anymore.
06:33And this will get this will be like the border.
06:36We started off with millions and millions of people coming in from all over the world.
06:40Gang members and people from jails.
06:42They were unloading their jails into our country all over the world.
06:46They were coming drug dealers.
06:49They came from Africa.
06:50They came from Asia.
06:52They came from South America, Venezuela in particular.
06:54They were coming in.
06:56Trendy, Aragua and the toughest people you've ever seen.
07:00And by the millions and for the last three months, we had zero, zero and zero.
07:09We had zero people come in for three months.
07:12They respect our country again.
07:14That's the other thing.
07:15All over the world, our country is respected again.
07:17So I also want to thank the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who's fantastic.
07:23She's done an incredible job.
07:26And Sergio Gore for the job he's done with personnel.
07:30Thank you very much, Sergio.
07:32Fantastic.
07:33In the coming months, we'll fully renovate the dated and really the entire infrastructure
07:40of the building and make the Kennedy Center a crown jewel of American arts and culture
07:47once again.
07:48I think we'll bring it to a higher level than it ever hit.
07:51Actually, it hit a certain level, but we're going to bring it to a higher level than it
07:54ever hit.
07:55We have the right location.
07:58And soon we will be a crime-free area.
08:01This is going to be a crime-free area, by the way.
08:04You'll be able to go out.
08:05People tell me they can't run anymore.
08:06They're just afraid.
08:08And they'll be running again.
08:09We're going to have a crime-free.
08:11It's a big statement because if one thing happens all year, Pam, you better be good
08:16because they'll say Trump did not fulfill his promise.
08:19One person gets a little injured by somebody.
08:22They'll say Trump did not fulfill his promise.
08:24No, we're going to be essentially crime-free.
08:27This is going to be a beacon.
08:30And it's going to also serve as an example of what can be done.
08:35We have to get rid of this cashless bail nonsense.
08:38If you look at New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, which is so badly run.
08:44Los Angeles, they can't get their houses.
08:45They can't get the people their permits to build their houses.
08:48They're trying to rebuild their houses from the ridiculous fire that should have never
08:52allowed to have taken place.
08:54They should have had the water coming down from the Pacific Northwest.
08:57But they didn't do that.
08:59But they can't get the permits for the people.
09:01They want to build their houses.
09:02But I want to thank Lee Zeldin because the federal government has gotten all of their permits,
09:08which are much more difficult permits, actually, and had them literally within 30 days after
09:13the fire, everybody had their permit.
09:16But you don't have the city and state permits.
09:18They've got to get going.
09:19The governor and the mayor have to get going.
09:21It will just be a matter of time that we're going to do something that's going to be incredible.
09:28We're going to use the Kennedy Center as a big focus of it.
Be the first to comment