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Newsom: Trump's nuclear weapons testing order is 'weakness masquerading in strength'

admin - Latest News - October 31, 2025
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In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) reacts to President Trump ordering the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing, which the governor calls “performative.”



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Oct. 31, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 31, 2025, 8:16 AM EDTBy Peter Nicholas and Megan LebowitzWASHINGTON — Over the years, a genteel nonprofit organization called the Trust for the National Mall has raised money to help care for the cherry trees dotting the Tidal Basin. It upgraded the U.S. Park Police stables on the National Mall and hosted pickleball games on the grassy expanse between American monuments.Now it has a new assignment: handling the millions of dollars pouring in for President Donald Trump’s gilded White House ballroom. The nonpartisan group is serving as the steward for what Trump has said is more than $350 million in private donations from individuals, foundations and corporations to remake part of the old East Wing into a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Donors have been instructed to direct their ballroom contributions to the trust, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Individual and corporate donors can typically deduct the amount they contributed from their federal income taxes. A person raising money for the ballroom told NBC News that they have been asking for donations of $2.5 million to $5 million and that the deduction is one reason people choose to give. The fundraiser, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. The White House said donors will be able to remain anonymous if they wish.The trust’s involvement in Trump’s project has plunged it into politically divisive terrain that it has avoided since its founding in 2007. Senators are demanding answers about what the trust knows about the ballroom and its donors and when it found out.“This nonpartisan, independent organization is about to be enmeshed in the very perilous quicksand of Donald Trump’s donation scheme for his ballroom,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in an interview.Devoted to “restoring, preserving and enriching the National Mall,” the trust is now part of a project that is transforming the symbol of American history and power. Construction crews flattened the East Wing of the White House this month to make way for a ballroom that can seat nearly 1,000 people; in July, Trump said the addition wouldn’t touch the White House.In interviews, trust officials stressed that they’re playing only the limited role of managing the donations and have no say over the design or construction of the ballroom itself. The group is an official partner of the National Park Service, the federal agency that maintains the White House grounds. Traditionally, the trust assists the Park Service by raising private money for projects, thus defraying the cost to taxpayers.Over the summer, the Park Service approached the trust and asked whether it would handle the private donations for the ballroom, a trust staff member said.The group’s 14-member board discussed the request and agreed to take part, board member Eric Hoplin, who is CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, said in an interview. Neither he nor the staff member would say whether the group could have declined to participate.Asked whether the trust knew in advance that the East Wing would be torn down, Hoplin said, “Because we weren’t involved in the design or construction, we were learning about the evolution of the project as others have.”He made no apologies for the ballroom, pointing to past White House renovations that also drew public ire back in the day. “If you look to history and you think about Andrew Jackson’s addition of the North Portico and you look at Teddy Roosevelt’s addition of the West Wing, when you look at the Truman restoration, including the Truman Balcony, each of those projects in their time was controversial,” Hoplin said. “Now they’re widely accepted and in fact celebrated parts of the White House. So it’s not for us to judge the project. We’re the partner of the National Park Service, and we are playing this limited role.”Born out of a philanthropic impulse, the trust seems a throwback to an era that predated Trump’s rise. The ballroom project is an arranged marriage of sorts between MAGA and civic magnanimity.Chip Akridge, head of a local commercial real estate firm, would regularly jog through Washington to look at his properties. A friend urged him to inspect the Mall’s condition, and when he did, he saw it was “a disgrace,” he told a House committee in 2008. Akridge said he helped create the trust to restore the Mall’s luster.The East Wing was demolished to make room for Trump’s new ballroom.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesOver the years, the trust has led a string of efforts to improve the Mall and surrounding spaces. During Trump’s first term, it managed $4 million in private donations for a pair of White House projects: a tennis pavilion and a renovation of the Rose Garden. Trump paved over the garden grass after he returned to office.The group brought in volunteers to help with White House garden tours, along with experts to “shape” White House educational tours in President Joe Biden’s administration, the staff member said.Donors have been invited to “adopt” a cherry tree as part of the trust’s effort to preserve the 3,700-some cherry trees on the Tidal Basin. A total of $42,000 was raised in 2023 to help protect 40 trees. The group also worked to upgrade horse stables on the Mall that were first built in the 1970s, among other projects. And it marshals volunteers for smaller tasks, such as painting benches and laying mulch.Current board members aren’t Trump’s traditional MAGA allies. Some are past or present executives at corporations like Humana and Wells Fargo, while others are philanthropists who have supported cultural and artistic endeavors. The group’s president and CEO is Catherine Townsend, who was appointed in 2016. That year, she donated $250 to the Democratic presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, campaign finance records show. Townsend also made a pair of $250 donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2010. The trust didn’t make Townsend available for an interview and didn’t respond to questions about the donations.Since he took office, Trump has pushed hard to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The trust hosted “conversations” during Joe Biden’s presidency that amplified minority voices. One such event in 2021 focused on African Americans and the influential role they’ve played on the National Mall. Another one that year, “Herstory on America’s Civic Stage,” dealt with “important moments for America’s women.” A third celebrated Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month. This week, the White House fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent government agency that is expected to review Trump’s construction projects, including the ballroom. A White House official said it plans to replace them with people who are “more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies.”Blumenthal and four other Democratic senators sent a letter to the trust and its governmental partner, the National Park Service, on Oct. 23 with a list of questions and a Nov. 7 deadline for answers. “Is the demolition consistent with the Trust’s mission to ‘preserve the National Mall as a symbol of our nation’s ideals and civic purpose?’” the senators asked.“What procedures are in place to pay for the project if costs exceed the amount raised via the Trust? Will taxpayers be liable for any potential costs of this project?” wrote Blumenthal and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.In a statement to NBC News, Warren said that “billionaires and giant corporations with business in front of the Trump administration are not coughing up millions of dollars to build Trump’s ballroom out of concern for the National Mall.”“The Trust for the National Mall appears to have become a vehicle for favor-seeking and possible corruption,” she said. “I’m pushing to find out if the Trust is facilitating wink-and-nod arrangements — and what these ballroom donors are getting in return.”The trust has not yet responded to the senators’ letter. In the past, the trust has raised comparatively modest amounts of money. In 2022, it received only about $2.2 million in contributions and grants, according to its IRS tax returns. Last year, it raised about $9.5 million.The ballroom project has attracted donations from major companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and beyond. Comcast Corp., the parent company of NBCUniversal, was also on the White House list of donors. The trust staff member said that “financials can vary widely year over year based on projects being built or completed and where we are in a fundraising cycle.”The group has stepped up its fundraising efforts ahead of July 4, 2026, when the nation will celebrate its 250th anniversary. It has set out to raise $250 million, with the money going toward projects that include restoring the fountains of Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House.A former IRS official who reviewed the trust’s most recent tax return expressed doubts that the group is equipped to manage the ballroom donations.“The main thing is that this is not an organization that shows any indication of being able to have an inflow of hundreds of millions of dollars,” the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Hoplin voiced confidence the trust can do the job.“We have the capacity and the ability and the track record for a project of this magnitude,” he said.Peter NicholasPeter Nicholas is a senior White House reporter for NBC News.Megan LebowitzMegan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.Christina Wilkie contributed.
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Nov. 10, 2025, 12:58 PM ESTBy Kate Reilly and Corky SiemaszkoThere may soon be an end to the government shutdown that has been causing massive flight delays for weeks, but the travel nightmare caused by the political chaos in Washington showed no signs of abating Monday.A day after senators approved a preliminary agreement to end the impasse, which is now in its 41st day, the Federal Aviation Administration announced it would continue to restrict commercial flights into and out of some of the country’s busiest airports.As of Monday morning, more than 1,400 flights had been canceled of the more than 25,000 scheduled, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. On Sunday, more than 2,600 flights were canceled, which amounted to about 10% of all scheduled flights. It’s not clear how many were scheduled cancellations because of the shutdown and how many were canceled for other reasons, such as weather.And the number of scheduled flight cancellations is expected to increase to 6% on Tuesday, up from the initial 4% that started on Friday. Lolita Honkpo, who was back at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Monday after her flight to Atlanta was canceled on Sunday, said that she was fed up with the government shutdown and that it was time to make “every person in a position of power uncomfortable about this.””I think that, really, people should be calling their Congress people at this point,” Honkpo said.The airports where the FAA was restricting flights Monday include Chicago O’Hare International Airport; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport; Boston Logan International Airport; Los Angeles International Airport; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport; George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston; Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas; Denver International Airport; and two of the three major airports in the New York City metropolitan area.Travelers make their way through a security line at Boston Logan International Airport on Monday. Joseph Prezioso / AFP – Getty ImagesAll are airports that have been grappling with staffing shortages since air traffic controllers have been working without pay because of the shutdown.Controllers are considered essential workers and not allowed to walk off their jobs — even if they’re not being paid. Airports across the country have reported staffing shortages and flight delays since the start of the government shutdown.President Donald Trump, in a post Monday on Truth Social, threatened to dock the pay of air traffic controllers who have missed work and said he would recommend a $10,000 bonus for those who haven’t taken any time off.“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,” Trump wrote.Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, who has steadfastly defended the controllers through the crisis, called his members “unsung heroes” during a news conference on Monday.“They are doing everything they can to hold this system together and be out there serving the American public during these trying times, 41 days without pay is unacceptable,” Daniels said. “Air traffic controllers should not be the political pawn during a government shutdown.”Responding to Trump’s post, Daniels said: “I’ll take anything that recognizes these hard-working men and women, but we’ll work with the administration on any issues that are out there.””Air traffic controllers will continue to show up during this shutdown,” he said. “They’ve endured the longest shutdown in American history, and every single day they absolutely, not only deserve their pay, they deserve to be recognized for what’s going on, so we’ll work with the administration through it.”Kate ReillyKate Reilly is a news associate with NBC News.Corky SiemaszkoCorky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.Jay Blackman and Sam Brock contributed.
September 24, 2025
Sept. 23, 2025, 3:05 PM EDTBy Doha MadaniJimmy Kimmel broke his silence after his brief suspension from the airwaves, posting a picture to Instagram on Tuesday of a Hollywood figure who once described himself as being on President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.”Kimmel shared a photo of himself and Norman Lear, the television producer who was best known for his progressive activism. Lear died in 2023 at age 101. The late-night host captioned the photo, which features his arm around Lear, “Missing this guy today.” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is set to return to ABC on Tuesday night after the network suspended the show over what it described as “ill-timed” comments from Kimmel on the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. During his Sept. 15 show, Kimmel criticized some Republicans for how they were responding to Kirk’s killing.“The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said during his monologue. Disney’s ABC said last week that it was pre-empting Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” following threats of regulatory action from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr. Many, including a handful of celebrities, expressed outrage toward ABC for choosing to pull Kimmel’s show following Carr’s threats.After increasing public pressure and calls to boycott, Disney announced Monday that Kimmel would return to late night. In its announcement, the company did not address the concerns that Kimmel’s freedom of speech rights had been violated.Hollywood rallies behind Kimmel, while Trump and supporters cheer suspension03:08Kimmel had not spoken publicly about the suspension since it happened.The late-night host has described Lear as one of his idols. Lear developed now-beloved sitcoms such as “All in the Family” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons” and “One Day at a Time.” His work was defined by being unafraid to tackle social issues long considered taboo. Over six decades, Lear’s work took up racism, sexism, the women’s liberation movement, antisemitism, abortion, homophobia, the Vietnam War and class conflict. Lear said his work put him on Nixon’s “enemies list” because he was angry about Lear “glorifying” homosexuality on TV, according to Smithsonian magazine. He appeared delighted to learn of Nixon’s reaction to his work after a tape leaked of the president ranting about “All in the Family.” “I thought it was delicious that in the Oval Office — I didn’t care for what he was saying, I didn’t care for that particular president in any shape, way or form — but to hear the president and his confederates talking about that show and at some length, reasoning about it and comparing it to the Greek civilization, that could not have been more interesting,” he told Talking Points Memo in 2015.In a 2016 interview with “Democracy Now!” Lear compared Nixon’s rant about his show in the leaked tapes to being “Trumpish.” He also said that he remembered his civics education as a child, which taught him that he was protected by the Founding Fathers. “But when I was a boy, I learned to love my Declaration of Independence — and I underline ‘my’ — and my Constitution and my Bill of Rights, because they were the protections Americans needed in a free society where everybody is equal under the law,” Lear said at the time.Doha MadaniDoha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.
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