A former Fox News anchor ripped into President Donald Trump's continued efforts to put his name on the Kennedy Center.
During a Thursday appearance on CNN, Gretchen Carlson said that Trump's insistence that his name appear on the Kennedy Center facade is tiring out the American public. Even though a federal judge rebuked his effort in May, the Trump-allied board moved to restore his name to the facade with an inscription crediting Trump with renovating and restoring the center, and Justice Department lawyers warned the center could be "required to be taken down" if the renovation and naming effort is blocked.
"This is disrespectful. This is repugnant," Carlson said. "The American people are completely tired of these shenanigans. He didn't build this."
She responded to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's impassioned argument for Trump's push to shut down the Kennedy Center. After a hearing, Lutnick exclaimed on Wednesday, "This building is dangerous" because of falling concrete, as he urged the center to close for renovations that were also blocked by a federal judge.
"First of all, sorry to say, Howard Lutnick is not telling the truth," Carlson said. "Donald Trump did not build this, and he's not going to tear it down because the American people will have an insurrection over that."
She added, "The American people, I'm sure, love the fact that Howard Lutnick says that during the week, all Trump does is talk about building stuff." However, she argued that Trump should be more concerned about more urgent problems and tore into his other vanity projects.
"We've got a war in Iran that is not solved," Carlson said. "He's now naming Lake Ontario Lake America. He's saying vandalism for the Reflecting Pool. He's not talking about the economy. I mean, the American people at some point are going to have to show the frustration that I am showing right now."