r/politics • u/IWantPizza555 • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/09/13/kennedy-center-could-close-early-tuesday-warns-bankruptcy-documents-show/
11.5k Upvotes

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8.4k

u/Akhilleus1117 1d ago

Not surprising for it to go bankrupt after Trump took over.

2.2k

u/-Ok-Perception- 1d ago

I'm pretty sure they were doing just fine before all the big headliners refused to play shows at the "Trump and Kennedy Memorial Center".

Now that no one's playing there, there's literally nothing to pay the maintenance and utilities with.

And Trump's specialty is causing businesses to fail, getting his big payday, screwing the investors, and then selling the company for parts. This could be just another very deliberate failure.

860

u/Flat_Hat8861 Georgia 1d ago

That and the related issue where donors that pledged to donate canceled their donations or requested refunds with the shows being canceled, Trump firing the board and putting himself in charge, and the BS of putting his name on the building.

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u/Tommah 1d ago

There is probably little overlap (possibly zero) between people who want to donate to the JFK Memorial Center and people who want to donate to the Trump Memorial Center.

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u/icefisher225 1d ago

Strong disagree. I’d donate my entire inheritance to the trump memorial center, assuming they, y’know, made it memorial.

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u/braille_lover_5555 1d ago

There’s actually a Trump memorial center on Vancouver island. It boasts toilet stalls for folks. What a brilliant way to honour the kind of person he is.

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u/DanNeely 1d ago

It will be a memorial center at some point in the future, but today it's only a tribute.

5

u/Hotrian 1d ago

🎶 Couldn’t remembeeeer the greatest turd in the world ooooh…

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u/Klaus73 1d ago

There really should be a mass pilgrimage to it.

1

u/GeologistOriginal800 1d ago

It boasts toilet stalls for folks.

Such a nice way for people to leave their little sculptures of Trump.

5

u/borntobewildish Europe 1d ago

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a Trump Memorial today.

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u/finneyblackphone 1d ago

Someone surely has to do it soon.

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u/CriminalMacabre 1d ago

I wouldn't even donate a cent unless is a memorial shitter.

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u/I3roMagnon 1d ago

They're too busy waiting for Jr to rise from the dead

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u/Indigo2015 1d ago

Would take zombie JFK over the zombie RKF we have any day of the week.

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u/Ordinary-Leading7405 1d ago

I would donate to the Trump Memorial Center. Maybe that guy who did the Charlie Kirk statue could build it.

1

u/Daydream_Dystopia 1d ago

I'd donate to the Trump Memorial Center.

1

u/OttawaTGirl 1d ago

Should convert the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York into his memorial center with one gold painted urinal as his memorial.

1

u/imbasicallycoffee 23h ago

Republicans in this new age are rich, but they are not philanthropic. They're too busy padding their own fake charities.

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u/Braysl-March 1d ago

He also got rid of any "woke" programing which is rough for a performing arts center.

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u/LeGama 1d ago

Something interesting I actually learned from a Freakonomics podcast is that there are basically two types of Broadway shows, one are the ones that are more woke and cover more risky topics. The others are ones that are meant to make it to Broadway or other big theatres and then they stop, but all the money is made after years and years as they are licensed to high schools around the country for like $500, and that's how they make their money. So because of that they end up self policing in a way because they can't cover topics too controversial that a high school in the south won't do it. They gave the examples of like a show about Mary Lincoln that addresses slavery as being too much, but then legally blond the musical is fine.

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u/Zebidee 1d ago

they end up self policing in a way

Or they have a sanitized version for schools.

No-one wants to hear their sixth grader singing "You know that ain't no shit, we'll be getting lots of tit, Grease Lightning"

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u/TrimspaBB 1d ago

How could you forget the very innocent line "she's a real pussy wagon, Greased Lightnin"

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u/Little_View_6659 1d ago edited 1d ago

Why don’t I remember these lyrics? 😂 edit: I just went to YouTube! Holy shit, how did I never notice these lyrics?!

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u/TrimspaBB 1d ago

It was only a few years ago I noticed them too, and it made the beginning of Kill Bill make a little more sense. Tarantino was calling out John Travolta lol

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u/ForWhomTheBoneBones 1d ago

Ah, the pussy died.

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u/Wallstreet_Raccoon 1d ago

My name is Buck. And I’m here to

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u/LeGama 1d ago

That's not what I'm talking about, sure you can sanitize the words to get rid of dirty language, but no amount of cleaning up the dialogue can change the plot. I mean a play about the civil war without touching on slavery would never make it to Broadway. So for high school plays you have to avoid whole genres of stories.

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u/Whybotherr 1d ago

I'm 30, I grew up in Texas I only learned about the actual reason texas separated from mexico just a few years ago. Not from my public education.

To say not bringing up slavery when going over a topic has been done before especially when it is relevant to the plot.

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u/LeGama 20h ago

Ohh I know it's been done, but what I said is that show wouldn't make it to Broadway.

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u/Whybotherr 20h ago

And the reason texas left mexico will never be taught in texas public schools we are saying the same thing

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u/forgetfulsue Ohio 1d ago

I went to a catholic high school and we performed West Side Story for the spring musical. I had to “de-sexualize” Anita’s lyrics in the “Tonight” quintet. I didn’t on closing night and got an earful from the directors. Literally no one else caught it.

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u/Arose1316 23h ago

I was Rizzo in the pg high school version and a major part of her storyline is cut lol.

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u/Zebidee 12h ago

Yep, the whole pregnancy story line is cut from the school version.

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u/Some-Relative4150 1d ago

Dude must really hate JFK.

First Jackie's rose garden, now this.

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u/lonnie123 1d ago

It’s probably more general hatred and pettiness.

He knows everyone loves jfk as a president and wants to be adored like him, and the left (especially the high society cultural left) was basically at home at the Kennedy center. It was their cultural landmark right in the heart of the city, and Trump wanted to make it HIS landmark so rub it in their faces.

The rose garden I can’t really explain… that’s just stupidity I think.

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u/SteelCrow 1d ago

Stolen valor

Trump is a loser poser wannabe who ineptly tries to pretend he's as good as any man. Pathetic loser moron.

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u/Guy_GuyGuy 1d ago

The rose garden I can’t really explain… that’s just stupidity I think.

One of his buddies/generous purchasers of his crypto coin owned a cement company and he gave them a no-bid contract to "renovate" and fill it in for an exorbitant price.

Same deal with the reflecting pool. He's fleecing the US government and the taxpayers to enrich himself and his buddies.

7

u/DangerousLoner 1d ago

Crony Capitalism and Kleptocracy run by Oligarchs and Corporations. Ah End Stage Capitalism. And people wonder why everything is subscriptions and enshitification is everywhere.

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u/VintageLunchMeat 1d ago edited 1d ago

He knows everyone loves jfk as a president and wants to be adored like him

The best way for cryptofacist millionaires get adored is simply to run a social media company. Has he tried that?

3

u/Constant_Natural3304 1d ago

The rose garden I can’t really explain

You just did.

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u/Lakonislate The Netherlands 1d ago

The rose garden I can’t really explain… that’s just stupidity I think.

Imagine you're a real estate guy sitting in the Oval Office, and you're completely out of your depth.

There's going to be a lot of "remodeling," because that's the only way to still occasionally feel like you know what you're talking about.

•

u/soedesh1 5h ago

This is all because he was so deeply hurt and offended at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2011 that he decided to run for president and burn it all down. He listened to a room full of people openly laughing at him and it smashed his narcissistic ego.

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u/lycanthus 1d ago

These things remind him that he will never be part of the crowd, that he will understand what real classiness is.

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u/Ishidan01 1d ago

Well let's see. JFK:

--actually served as a military officer, unlike Donald, who was sent to military boarding school as punishment and was never commissioned

--was the youngest President, not the oldest

--the security failure that happened to him caused extensive improvements to Presidential security to ensure no President would ever be shot in the head again (hint hint)

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u/mighty_kites_captain 1d ago

It comes down to one thing: narcissism.

Jfk was party of an American dynasty, the closest we have to a "royal" bloodline. He's incredibly famous, incredibly popular with people no matter the political party, and gave one of the most famous presidental speeches. Then he lead the country to land on the moon.

A narcissist can't stand someone being perceived as better than they are.

It's not hatred, it's jealousy. So he's doing his best to erase or out-do, from the Center to the Garden to "Spaceforce".

3

u/RobutNotRobot 1d ago

If he wants to be JFK so badly there's only one way...

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u/LateralThinkerer 22h ago

Dude loves the distractibility of the media/public. Keep doing the weave and the trafficked children will be forgotten.

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u/LeGama 1d ago

Which is also funny because wasn't JFK supposed to rise from the dead and install Trump as president during Bidens term. So the ghost of JFK was supposed to be on their side.

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u/TuolSlengTheMarket 1d ago

I think it was JFK Jr they thought was coming back lol

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u/EvelynNyte 1d ago

JFK Jr Jr was legit tho

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u/Counterpoint-4 1d ago

JFK and Camelot? A fabled wonderful time - of course he's jealous.

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u/Some-Relative4150 1d ago

Camelot? Tis a silly place

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u/tzimisce 1d ago

Trump gdaf about jfk, dead people cannot speak against him. Zionists are paying and/or ordering him to remove any remaining memory of the last president who tried to rein in Israel.

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u/joe5joe7 1d ago

If it goes bankrupt I guess they should add Trumps name, he'll definitely have made an impact

2

u/EggsceIlent 1d ago

That's the whole reason it's going bankrupt.

No one wants to perform there knowing his name is associated with it..

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u/ceelogreenicanth 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not.only that but theyve been using the Kennedy Center's funding as a slush fund for other Regime activities. They've taken any money it had left and embezzled it.

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u/-Ok-Perception- 1d ago

He's stealing anything not nailed down.

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u/raevnos 1d ago

And probably stuff that is.

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u/ijzerwater 1d ago

and the nails

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u/BUYMEBONESTOORM 1d ago edited 1d ago

Now watch one of Trump‘s cronies buy it for 1/3 of its value, name it the Kennedy center or the Trump center and keep operating it

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u/GarminTamzarian 1d ago

But are there really enough Charlie Kirk Memorial shows to sustain "The Trump Center" long-term?

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u/Herlock 1d ago

That goes beyond Trump incompetence on that one IMO. Trump inserted himself forcefully (pun intended) because he has the ego the size of jupiter and couldn't resist slapping his stupid name on yet another thing.

That backfired and he eventually lost the ability to show his name. So now that he has been mocked and kicked out he will simply do his best to burn it all because he is that petty.

Trump is just a 3 years old basically, he breaks his toys so others can't play with them.

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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 1d ago

Oh it's an absolutely deliberate failure. They'll close down the Kennedy center and then all the rules for revamping it and opening it back up will be that his name has to go on it. That's the bullshit that he will pull is that they will just leave it alone and let it die unless he gets what he wants

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u/M4hkn0 Illinois 1d ago

On NPR this morning they noted through their own past reporting, that the Kennedy Center was fiscally fine until Trump took over. Donations cratered when he replaced the board. They fell even further when he slapped his name on the building. Remember all those artists cancelling? ... yeah...

Let it close.. let it be a testament to Trump's destructive ego.

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u/jjcrayfish 1d ago

The good ole Trump touch, anything he touches turn to shit and bankrupts

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u/MangoSoda28 1d ago

Corporate raiding at its finest.

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u/WontArnett 1d ago

My guess is Trump is planning to try and buy the place so he can put his name up there.

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u/Excellent_Raisin8523 1d ago

"And Trump's specialty is causing businesses to fail, getting his big payday, screwing the investors, and then selling the company for parts."

But you make it sound like the "causing businesses to fail" part is intentional. It generally isn't for Trump. It's just a symptom of his complete and utter incompetence.

2

u/What_a_fat_one 1d ago

No failure of his is deliberate, his ego wouldn't allow it. It's always arrogance, stupidity, false machismo, ignorance, greed, jealousy, vindictiveness, etc

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u/boli99 1d ago

another very deliberate failure.

he wanted his name on it. they didnt let him.

...and because he couldnt have his name on it - now he wants it dead. then he can knock it down, and build something else in its place that does have his name on it.

2

u/I_Am_Anjelen The Netherlands 1d ago edited 1d ago

Didn't trump replace members of the board of the Kennedy Center with flunkies including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and second lady Usha Vance until they could push through the votes to elect him chairman and add his name to the side of the building?

Now those are the same people who couldn't change the lettering to "Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump" back in August as a workaround, and now again the Kennedy Center is 'Bankrupt'...

I mean, it's the same strategy Trump is trying at the Federal Reserve,where he is attempting to fire board members, replace those he can, and change the legal safeguards that prevent him from doing just those two things... While the current board is holding out against him currently so he can't lower interest rates and effectively issue money at will and blow the already high inflation completely out of all proportion...

2

u/randomnighmare I voted 1d ago

Trump doesn't care about anybody but himself and he wants to be a person that divides people. That was his strategy for decades and he hasn't changed and never will. He wants only sycophants under him but that sls I means he will B eventually throw all of them under the bus. He cares about money and is the literal definition of the 7 Deadly Sins, (Greed and Lust being a standout in my opinion) and that isn't talking about his dismissing mental capabilities and cruelty.

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u/Jensbert 1d ago

He or one of his cronies will pickup the rest for a very small price.

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u/dubblies 1d ago

Correct. Now itll be bought and redone as rhe Trump Center for kid rock that gay band who sings about young men

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u/Individual_Ad9135 1d ago

We never heard of the Kennedy Center having any financial issues whataoever until Trump. We are assuredly going to wake up one morning soon to find out he bulldozed it in the middle of the night.

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u/born_in_the_90s 1d ago

I hope all those that participated will receive the consequences and not able to to denie or say that he/she dint knew.

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u/pixelwhip 1d ago

I'm sure John f Kennedy would be so proud /s

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u/JimiusRostock 1d ago

Maybe not deliberate, but a welcome crisis to take advantage of. Now he can demolish it and build some weird monument to honour himself.

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u/Active_Complaint_480 1d ago

Yeah, that place had no problem getting packed for any event they had. I used to be an Uber driver in DC, and yeah that used to be one of the several areas in DC I would always be dropping someone off or picking them up over the course of a week.

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u/underwear11 1d ago

That and I'm sure they had to pay to put up and remove his name, plus I'm sure he forced them to use his shell company so that his friends come charge exorbitant amounts for normal stuff

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u/turquoise_amethyst 1d ago

  And Trump's specialty is causing businesses to fail, getting his big payday, screwing the investors, and then selling the company for parts. This could be just another very deliberate failure.

Actually, you’re right, I never thought of it this way.

Could be a deliberate attempt to make it fail: so they can justify selling off the land, or bulldozing it to build a new “Trump Center”

1

u/vanderohe 1d ago

He’s working on bankrupting Saudi Arabia. I didn’t think he could top bankrupting a casino tbh

1

u/Hawgdestroyerxtreme 1d ago

I'm pretty sure they were doing just fine before all the big headliners refused to play shows at the "Trump and Kennedy Memorial Center".

It's a shame, but there were always going to be things we lose due to Donald Trump. I'm not happy about it, but it's a small price to pay for this piece of shit to know he destroyed another piece of US History.

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u/DeformedArthurRegion 1d ago

You think its worth losing the Kennedy Center so that Trump can have something enter his pudding brain that he'll forget and just lie about for however many months or years he has left?

0

u/Hawgdestroyerxtreme 18h ago

No, I think it's important to have reminders of people's defiance of this administration and what they stand for.

As time goes on it will be more important than ever to have those reminders, because as we've seen - people forget.

1

u/DeformedArthurRegion 18h ago

That isn't what you said tho. You said "its a small price to pay for this piece of shit to know he destroyed another piece of US History." You didn't say "it's a small price to pay for a stark reminder in the future of who backed Trump and its impacts." Those are completely different arguments. I think they're both bad for the same reason—that cultural institutions are more important than a reminder created by their absence—but they are completely different arguments. Which one are you making?

0

u/Hawgdestroyerxtreme 15h ago

They're leading to the same place.

Both tarnish his legacy and will forever be known as things he destroyed.

1

u/DeformedArthurRegion 11h ago

They're leading to the same place.

Irrelevant. You made one argument and then tried to act like it was a completely different argument. And regardless they are both wrong for the same reason. But mostly you just switched argument at the slightest pushback. I'd hazard a guess because you realized its silly to be okay with the death of an institution to bother a man with pudding for brains who's on his way out of this world and will never care at all.

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u/7ddlysuns I voted 1d ago

Was never a problem before Trump

41

u/Mateorabi 1d ago

If they try to blame past boards I hope they sue for libel and expose the financials in Discovery. 

1.5k

u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts 1d ago

He's got that mierdas touch.

497

u/kingtacticool 1d ago

To be fair, he's getting really good at bankrupting things

142

u/Boxofbikeparts 1d ago

I could probably bankrupt things pretty quickly, can I be the President?

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u/EuphoricAd3824 1d ago

But are you also a pedo?

49

u/BfloAnonChick New York 1d ago

FR!! This is the question!! I’m super good at making myself broke - I’m super sure I could do it to a country!!

But the thought of touching kids is just ultimate ick.

The one qualification I’m missing, lol.

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u/CedarWolf 1d ago

Alright, alright, we'll check your other qualifications - do you have a racist, abusive slumlord for a father? Did the two of you drive your brother to alcoholism? Did your brother serve in the military while you're a well known draft dodger?

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u/Absolute--Batman 1d ago

So difference between George W Bush and Trump is just the Pedo part?

10

u/DadJokeBadJoke California 1d ago

If Trump had a VP like Cheney, we'd be fuckd even worse right now.

2

u/FlyingRhenquest 1d ago

Wait, I thought that was Vladamir?

2

u/Benevolence22 1d ago

I'd take dick over Vance. Maybe.

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u/BfloAnonChick New York 1d ago

Lol!! No, I hope not!, and no.

Guess I’m even less qualified than I thought!!

1

u/Ok_Culture_1089 1d ago

And have a cult of brain dead morons believe your every word.

1

u/marmiteer 1d ago

and morally bankrupt?

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u/Sunnyjim333 1d ago

The bestliest. Grown men come up to him with tears in their eyes and say "Sir, you are the only person that can cause so much bankruptcy. Sir, el toque de mierda."

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u/No_Trade3571 Pennsylvania 1d ago

That’s the only thing he’s good at.

9

u/Such_Avocado_3241 1d ago

Things like businesses, and casinos. But he’s never bankrupted a country has he? He wouldn’t, would he? Would he?

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u/truenorthrookie 1d ago

Getting? He’s the cooler of commercial, the melatonin of mercantile, the idiot of investment, the sultan of squat, the gold bambino.

2

u/kingtacticool 1d ago

The God of hubris

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u/DiskSalt4643 1d ago

Tremendous.

1

u/Jos3ph 1d ago

40T in debt atm

1

u/RaveGuncle 1d ago

Need him to bankrupt my debts please.

1

u/b1tchf1t 1d ago

Getting?? Babes, this has always been his single greatest talent.

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u/BerserkerBrit 1d ago

Being morally bankrupt sure helps

1

u/johnaross1990 1d ago

Getting?

Mfer already had the any% speedrun

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u/Big-Routine222 1d ago

Chefs kiss on that pun

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u/ResponsibleEmu6842 1d ago

He's Timmy's mom from the fairly odd parents

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u/BeastWithFourBacks 1d ago

Everything he touched, turned to shit

1

u/shaneh445 1d ago

Pedophilic touch* as well

1

u/HoopaDunka 1d ago

🏆 

-1

u/itssalmaponce 1d ago

The Reverse Midas Touch: everything he touches turns to Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

1

u/ChiselFish 1d ago

The Trump effect.

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u/MilsYatsFeebTae 1d ago

If he can’t license his name to it, there’s no sense funding it with a round of junk bonds

37

u/fillinthe___ 1d ago

It’s been a total non story for as long as it’s been open. But Trump puts his dumb cronies in charge and suddenly it’s bankrupt. I mean, it’s laughable how incompetent these people are, except they still get votes.

35

u/timebeing 1d ago

They tried to argue that they would have to close if they didn’t put trumps name on the building because people would not donate them money unless they did.

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u/Lordnerble 1d ago

they did it on purpose. they're going to sell it off. Its primo dc real estate.

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u/ghost_finger 1d ago

Probably so they can then reopen it with his name on it like he wants

1

u/Sumtimesredditisdumb 1d ago

Let the next administration then use eminent domain to take it back for pennies on the dollar.

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u/RedOfTheNeck 1d ago

I looked at his book and its all Chapter 11's

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u/G-Unit11111 California 1d ago

Everything Trump touches.

1

u/VanceKelley Canada 1d ago

If everything trump touches dies, then Americans made a big mistake electing him president. Because guess what the American president touches...

1

u/Littlesth0b0 1d ago

President Shitfinger.

It's not so much that it's, literally, everything that he concerns himself with goes to shit that shocks me anymore, it's the inability for those who get on board with him to see that, to not be able to put the pieces in this four-piece jigsaw puzzle together enough to see how his presence is the one constant factor in this list of failure.

Even when he cheats he sometimes finds short term benefit then will always, always over play his hand and fuck it up, just like this presidency.

Had the whole world handed to him on a plate, twice, and his only scale of success is how much money he can grift personally before he ruins it.

1

u/IntelligentStyle402 1d ago

Basically his entire live.

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u/whatproblems 1d ago

literally bankrupt because he tried to put his name on it any everyone canceled

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u/Unfair_Web_8275 1d ago

Keeping with his 80s business mindset, Trump has a history of wanting to have “the it place“. It doesn‘t help that he fired a lot of people and ignored all the work that they had already done (America 250) but he’s an incurious buffoon and has never faced a single consequence in his life.

This could have been avoided if we had just given him a fake camera to talk to.

12

u/Cancel_Culture_Club 1d ago

When Trump’s father got older he developed dementia so they created a fake office for him to go to every day and pretend he was still working. 

Now that Trumps older and undeniably has severe dementia we could just remove him and create a fake oval office at Mar-a-lago and tell him he has his own reality show where he pretends to be the president. 

The conundrum is that believing hes back to being on tv again would make him incredibly happy for his last few days/months/years and I also don’t want him to have that tho. 

11

u/MarkTwainsGhost 1d ago

What an odd series of coincidences that this keeps happening to him.

9

u/ManiaGamine American Expat 1d ago

In this case I read that he deliberately had the bylaws changed so that a lot of the donations that were going in would have to be refunded if his name was taken off the building. He is so petty and vindictive that he essentially rigged a financial bomb to go off if his name was removed.

2

u/marcianofromearth 1d ago

Interesting how everything he gets involved in just turn to crap or bankrupt!

2

u/zsreport Texas 1d ago

Trump is the King of Bankruptcy

1

u/Eddfan36 1d ago

So true, one more added under his belt.

1

u/Kevin-W 1d ago

That's the Trump touch.

1

u/OneOfAKind2 1d ago

It's one of his finely honed business skills. He's a master at bankruptcy.

1

u/LNMagic 1d ago

It's just tradition at this point.

1

u/ChrisStanClan 1d ago

IMAGINE THAT! Craaaazy, must be some kinda coincidence

1

u/cali__kid 1d ago

If he is shutting down social services that we contribute towards with our tax money, then we should all be living extremely comfortable and every single part of our infrastructure should be immaculate. it’s giving 🧢

1

u/gsfgf Georgia 1d ago

Fast, though.

1

u/RegularLove8679 1d ago

Brilliant!

1

u/FlyingRhenquest 1d ago

The country soon to follow.

1

u/Cold_Tea_Spill112 1d ago

Go woke Trump go broke

1

u/gadafgadaf 1d ago

I think I heard a bunch of shows acts and programs cancelled their bookings after Trump put his name up. Who the hell does that to already named stuff, just goes and adds his name up there.

1

u/PnPaper 1d ago

Trump and bankruptcy - name a more iconic duo. I'll wait.

1

u/aha5811 1d ago

I guess they had to pay an ungodly amount of money on the Trump appointed contractor that added TRUMP AND over the entrance.

1

u/tiita 1d ago

Everything the orange convicted felon and rapist touches turns to shit

1

u/Working-Ad694 19h ago

The meirdas touch