Since Donald Trump retook office in January 2025, Washington has experienced significant upheaval in its institutions. The United States Institute of Peace underwent a DoGE takeover that involved federal police occupying the building, taking over its board of directors and seizing control of its assets and operations. The majority of people who had worked there prior was fired or nudged toward resignation – with their severance conditional on a promise not to sue their old employer. It was renamed the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.
In May 2025, the District Court ruled the takeover unlawful, which was appealed, pausing the decision’s impacts until further proceedings. In May of this year, it was reported members of the State Department were moving into the building, despite the ongoing legal dispute. Cockburn notes that regardless of what ends up happening in court, damage has been done to the institute’s work and its assets (which were largely privately funded), given that they have been under ambiguous control for months.
Up the river, the Kennedy Center also finds itself in the middle of an ongoing legal battle, following the hollowing out of the institution and the hampering of its operations.
Josef Palermo, who was hired as the Kennedy Center’s curator of visual arts and special programming after Trump took over, wrote for the Atlantic in April: “About a year elapsed between the moment President Trump took over the Kennedy Center in early 2025 and his declaration this past February that he’d decided to shut down the nation’s cultural center for two years. In between, we had seen artist cancellations, shrinking audiences, firings of old staffers and influxes of new ones – a lot of drama, just not onstage.” Trump had, of course, also slapped his mark on the institution, renaming it the “Trump Kennedy Center.”
On May 29 of this year, judges ruled the name change illegal and said it needed to be reversed. As of this week, the decision is under appeal, and the name may or may not remain in the meantime. Whether or not the center will still be shut down in July for renovations, as the Trump-installed board asserted, is also unclear.
On our radar
ART OF THE DEAL “The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” wrote President Trump on Truth Social this morning. “They better get their act together, and FAST!”
ALL THE WORLD’S A CAGE A UFC press conference will be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at 7:30 p.m. tonight, ahead of Sunday’s bouts on the South Lawn of the White House.
FIGHT AND WIN Further down the National Mall, there will be a watch party outside the Capitol for the USMNT’s debut match of the World Cup, against Paraguay at 9 p.m.
Thune’s blues
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is a divisive figure for such a mild-mannered man. Is he a secret #NeverTrumper working to undermine the President’s agenda or a modern-day Job at the mercy of the capricious God in the Oval Office?
It now seems like the pressure is getting to him. After weeks of speculation, the White House has just announced its new pick for director of national intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard: US Attorney Jay Clayton of the Southern District of New York. Trouble is, the announcement came just as Congress was about to head into recess, and mere minutes before the Senate’s close of session. The resultant jumble in Senate business meant that the FISA warrant surveillance program – which permits surveillance of foreign intelligence services and requires legislative approval – will expire without being renewed.
Thune’s statement to reporters was uncharacteristically morose. “As always, the timing around here matters. It would have been nice if we had had this a couple of days earlier,” he said. “But you play the hand you’re dealt. And we’ll try to figure out the best way to process this [nomination] quickly.” On Thursday he told reporters, wanly, that “my hopes often get dashed.”
To allies, Thune is the latest in a long line of put-upon Trump whisperers, asked to perform the impossible and driven to the end of their tethers. Yet whenever Thune complains about legislative timetables, Cockburn can’t help but be reminded of the Senate Dog Parade. In February, congressional Republicans were able to find time to wheel a fat bulldog around Capitol Hill.
Evenings with influencers and Substackistas
On Tuesday evening, Cockburn headed to City Tavern Club for an event called “Thomas Paine Would Have Had a Substack,” hosted by Substack and More Perfect’s In Pursuit . There was an open bar (thank goodness), circulating appetizers and subtle red-white-and-blue accented bars and tables. An actor impersonating Thomas Paine opened it up by reading from his own Common Sense, followed by Substack head of politics Catherine Valentine, and the archivist President Trump ousted, Colleen Shogan. The final speaker was “Gen Z historian” Kahlil Greene. He intimated that the concept of free speech includes distribution and access to an audience, citing the TikTok ban, which seems to have left a lot of zoomers traumatized and perhaps a little confused about the nature of the First Amendment.
Spotted: Billy Binion, John Bridgeland, Ann Compton, Jonas Du, Christine Emba, Samuel Kimbriel, Shadi Hamid, Ben Jacobs, Ryan Lizza, Anita McBride and Jacob Wasserman.
The following night, the Embassy of Italy hosted a reception called “Left, Right, and Center: A Conversation with Creators ahead of the 2026 Midterm Elections.” The night consisted of three panels: the first of conservative influencers, the second of liberal influencers – and a final conversation with one representative from each. The moderator of the last panel was a “self-described moderate” which didn’t help at all. There was a tense back-and-forth between one questioner and Jayme Franklin of the Conservateur about the difference between “birth rates” and “fertility rates.” The conversation eventually deteriorated into bickering and one liberal panelist stormed out. Afterward, she told Cockburn that Republicans (and Democrats for that matter) plant fake questioners in audiences all the time. In general, the conservatives were smooth-brained and the liberals were prickly. It made Cockburn wonder if maybe the kids really aren’t alright.
Spotted: Barrett Adair, Isabel Brown, Nikia Chirkov, Suzanne Lambert, Isaiah Martin, Aaron Parnas, Rina Shah and Chloe Trapanotto.
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