Trump BLINDSIDED by SURPRISE RESIGNATION

We’re seeing the impact of project 2025 in all aspects of our uh government right now. Whether it’s cancer research being cut, whether it’s weather forecasting and the devastating impacts we’re seeing when you cut emergency weather forecasting, and when you say you want to eliminate FEMA, what happens? We’re also seeing the Trump regime um dismantling museums, cutting back on the arts. You have Donald Trump like literally doing a coup of the Kennedy Center and people just really aren’t going there anymore. Just all aspects of it are dystopian and it’s resulting in systemic failure in our country. I’ll give you just different data points as well. I mean one data point you talk about cancer research. How could that be partisan? But the Trump regime is cutting cancer research across the board. Pancreatic cancer research where major breakthroughs are taking place. It’s like watch. This is a an individual who has who has uh been able to recover with a promising new vaccine and is now in fear that that’s going to be taken away. Here, play this clip. Your chances of recurrence are 80% and your chances of being alive in 5 years is 20%. He is 4 and a half years out without recurrence. Part of a small cohort of patients who received the vaccine on that trial who are like him doing well without recurrence. Could it be anything other than the vaccine? We don’t believe so. This is not a cancer where sometimes it looks um less aggressive than other times. This is a cancer that uniformly it doesn’t matter who you are, it comes back. So far, it hasn’t. It has not. Bottom line, I’m cancer free. 5 years. Now, the Callahanss are concerned the cuts at NIH could interfere with or even stop Kevin’s vaccine trial. They claim that they’re not cutting back on any of the science, on any of the people who are really doing the research. I don’t believe that criminal. But if I say to you, is it worth the money that the American public is investing the tax money? What price do you put on life? People were warning about this as well. Everybody was saying, “Here’s what project 2025 is going to do.” And again, we’re seeing what happens when you cut uh weather forecasting, when you cut emergency FEMA relief. And we’re now in the heart of hurricane season. Here was a professor back on August 27th, 2024 saying how Project 2025 is designed in one of its chapters to get rid of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Here, play this clip. You know, the fact is the Republicans have put out a plan. It’s called Project 2025. And people like Bill McKibben have written about this in the nation and it is a very detailed plan for how to dismantle our federal infrastructure. Things like getting rid of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which literally just keeps track of, you know, data around what is happening to our earth. You know, they want to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. We saw what a first Trump administration would do, rolling back, you know, almost a hundred environmental rules, pulling us out of the Paris Climate Agreement. and what does a well organized second Trump administration look like? If you want to know what it looks like, look at that Project 2025 document. It’s very scary. By contrast, what the Biden folks want to do is they want to keep delivering. And and it was all out there and Donald Trump’s trying to prop this up with North Korea style propaganda, state regime media like Fox, and also trying to control the arts. Control the arts. That’s what fascist dictators do. I want to bring in legendary musician Ben Folds because Ben, you were the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra. Um it was a major part of of your life um for a long time. you resigned February 12th um like literally in a minute after the Trump regime announced it was taking over uh the Kennedy Center and it was going to take over all aspect of the arts. They were going to dominate it. I want you to talk through that decision, but you were able to record something with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center that has now been released on July 4th that the Trump regime is not happy about which I want to talk about also. But I want I want you to talk through first what you saw with this regime’s grab and the propaganda that they were trying to the propaganda they’re trying to spew by controlling the arts. Well, and you could help me with this too because, you know, I’m I’m a musician that’s not used to messaging this sort of thing, but I’ve spent a lot of time um in the last, you know, 10 or 15 years being involved in uh you know, advocating for uh arts funding. I I actually did a um um I actually went to uh did a a test testimony before the uh uh House Subcommittee uh on on arts. I played and did panels at the Republican National Convention in 2016 uh as well as the Democratic. And I just I I feel like I I know a lot about this sort of the civics of this and the difference between the private sector and the public sector. What I find is when I’m trying to explain it to other people, not many people have the preerequisite knowledge for it. So maybe you could help me out with that a little bit. I mean, there was why I resigned. And then there’s kind of another question that I think people want answered, which is why not stay? But let me say that what I saw was an abuse of power, a very extreme one at the Kennedy Center. Uh people might not realize how the arts work uh uh in the government, but it’s very separated from the art itself. The government partisan politics is separated with a firewall from what we say, how we say it, who says it. That’s up to the people. And um the firewall was breached in the biggest way. I mean, he let go of the board, which was bipartisan. Once the board was gone, installed loyalist, the loyalist came in and voted in, guess who? Trump to be uh the the the chairman, the head of the of the the county center. The reason that that is so alarming is because now he can put or they can put their fist on the scale of what is programmed, who gets to speak and who doesn’t get to speak at our greatest arts institution, the Kennedy Center. That’s a real problem. The thing I have a hard time explaining to people is why not stay and sort of, you know, fight it out. And I and I think I could really use some uh some Ben Myasalis coaching on this because it it I know I did the right thing. Here’s my thought. Here’s my thought is is that you don’t want to be used as a puppet for the regime and they’re going to use someone like you with your distinguished career and they’re going to say, “Look, Ben Fold supports me. You know, take a look and what Trump does.” And you see this, he brings the Juventus soccer team, an Italian football club, to be behind him as he’s talking about potential war with Iran. He brings a group of construction workers to sit next to him and says, “Look, you see, they like me.” But what he loves the most is celebrity. And when he just has kid rock over and over and over again, he he wants he wants a Ben Folds to say, “Look, here’s a here’s an artist with kind of deep intellectual roots who supports me and if Ben Fold support you should too.” So I that’s my belief about why you why you you have to leave because you’re just used as a prop. Yeah. No, that’s that’s a good that’s a really good point and part of what I should use to explain that. I mean, where I’ve been before with it is to say, well, I mean, look, you know, we all grew up seeing, you know, there are abuses of power that I saw on television. You know, there was um um you know, Watergate. So, in Watergate, the you know, the the Saturday night massacre occurs and people are asked to do a task that they can’t do. You know, like they can’t morally or ethically do the things that the president is is is pressuring them to do, but they don’t want to be subordinate either. So, the only thing they can do is publicly resign. But then there are like the generals that are like the adults in the room. Like you know if the if you’re talking about like you know uh we’re worried that that he’s going to have a you know a bad day and wake up and nuke somebody then it’s good to have but that’s not the that’s not the case with me. There’s nothing I could do there. I was curatorial. So you know I I couldn’t curate within the bounds of whatever kind of white Christian thing that they wanted to do. There was another problem of it. But people’s um kind of you know earnest ignorance of the way that the uh arts work in the private and public sector is too I find a little frustrating when I’m trying to explain it. Well, also it’s not fully funded by the federal government. I mean the Kennedy Center I mean a lot of the money actually comes from private sources and and and the most was like 90%. and the market was speaking that this was a viable, thriving, successful model. Of course, it has wear and tear and always could be improved, but to me, it was a shining example relative to what we saw in the Soviet Union and how their arts were fully controlled by a central planning regime. In fact, and I know you’ve talked about this before, a lot of the origins of the Kennedy Center and the celebration was that it was different from what existed in the Soviet Union. And now it has essentially followed the Soviet regime central planning style control of the arts, which the original leadership of the Kennedy Center was kind of a reaction to. C can can you speak to that? Yeah, I mean one of the one of the uh you know legendary uh directors and conductors at the Kenny Center was you know they called him Slava. His name’s too too long to pronounce but uh Slava Rostropovich chist uh from the USSR and also a conductor and the right-hand man essentially to uh Dimmitri Shastikovich. Shastikovich was like he was, you know, his classical music does now, but he was a big celebrity. Stalin really cared what this guy, you know, thought. He was like Bruce Springsteen or or Taylor Swift. And and and Stalin would go and intimidate uh uh Shastikovich at his performances. He would show up and he’d laugh at Shastikovich from the stage, point at him. His generals were there flanking him. And Shastikovich was like, “Oh my god, my my my family’s gonna get imprisoned. I’m gonna get imprisoned. Someone’s gonna get killed.” Um, and it’s the same thing as tweeting out, “I hate Shastikovich, right? I hate Taylor Swift.” It might seem funny. Yeah, he’s just up there laughing, but the pressure and the intimidation put his thumb on the scale of the arts. So, Rostropovich saw all this and he defected from uh from the USSR and he found himself directing the National uh Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. And what he enjoyed about that was a complete sacred firewall that existed protecting him from that kind of intimidation, from that kind of pressure and that kind of influence. I thought about him when I resigned in that minute because I I could feel suddenly for it sounded crazy before and all of a sudden it’s real. All of a sudden it’s like this is real. It’s like okay there’s not a firewall there anymore to go when I bring in artists as a curator. Are they safe? I I don’t know. I mean can they say what they want to? I I Yeah, I guess they can. But what’s the what’s the consequence going to be? they can’t trust me anymore and I can’t trust them and and there’s no trust. You know, before there wasn’t a law that said you couldn’t do this, so Trump did it. But the reason the norms are there and the reason that America is America is because of the people that steward it, not the institutions. And so, yeah, that was a real thing. And and and I hate to step away from it, but we’ll have to do our work outside of the Kennedy Center, I’m afraid, for a while. Let’s talk about the album Benf Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra. You were able to record this. Yeah. In the Kennedy Center. It kind of slipped through the cracks, if you will, and the Trump regime wasn’t able to clamp down on it. Talk to us about the album, where people can download it, and why it’s such an important endeavor for you and the release on Independence Day. Well, one, you know, for me personally, uh, it commemorates, um, eight years of working with that orchestra, and that’s our nation Symphony Orchestra. Incredibly proud of them. They’re still our nation Symphony Orchestra, and they still need to be supported. A little tougher because they’re a bit demoralized because their subscriptions are so down. Um, you know, I I think Washington Post reported they were down 80% across the board. I don’t know if that directly is a number that applies to the orchestra, but they’re feeling it. Um, and so to me, this memorializes that and I love that. Um, secondly, it it it stands to me for sort of a a a golden period where we were getting the orchestra to the point again of being um an original uh an orchestra that does original music, you know, that that is really difficult and expensive to do. When we did that concert and and um and we recorded it, um it meant enough to me to have this just recorded to pay for it essentially myself and there was something that was funded otherwise, but it it pretty much was me giving my fee and all this kind of stuff to make it work because it’s really expensive to do. So, it wasn’t a capitalistic endeavor for me, though I dig some capitalism at the right time. So, this this is recorded one night, two nights, and um it was before the election. things were feeling a little bit eerie. Um, I had chosen a a selection of songs like a song called But Wait, there’s More, which I’d written a few years ago when the first part of of Trump, which is like it seemed like every day was like we were titilated at the next weird story and we were all paying attention and like that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Like the the uh the you know the press conference in the in the landscaping parking lot next to the dildo shop. Wow, that’s pretty weird. That’s crazy. What’s next? then it’s old and then the next thing is even crazier. So that’s what we started the concert on was like look we’re still it’s getting crazier and crazier. Are we really out of this? Um there’s a song on there about um uh about uh families and friends being torn apart by misinformation was all very much in the air that was recorded and then you know put away. And when um uh when the Trump regime uh um staged their Kennedy Center coup, we completely expected this to be shelved. I thought, well, that’s it. I’m never even going to hear the recordings. They’re they’re somewhere in a vault. Um but what you find about people that take things over like this is they’re not really paying attention to the dayto-day. I mean, Deborah Rudder was running the center at a surplus some years, like by $6 million, I hear. Crazy. That’s nuts. I mean, they’re not supposed to run a surplus. It’s it’s not a private business. These guys have already got the the the um uh subscriptions are down. Artists won’t play there anymore. And people are in general in end in enduring a circus um uh in in times. I never saw people boo one time at a concert. Now it’s like, you know, some some kind of wrestling show or something. That’s one of the things too. It’s just not doing well. like like you know that there was a marketplace of ideas that was performing well. We were selling out every single show we did. Am I serious? The biggest audiences, the biggest crowds, the biggest everything. And then he puts his f This is This is his history though, right? He puts his finger on the scale. He tries to use artists as props and he thinks that he’s the most creative person and he wants to program and then it fails and then and and then and then we pay the price. What’s the last thing you just want to say to everybody else out there who’s seeing you taking, you know, public stances in these difficult times when a lot of artists are not? Yeah. I mean, I’d like to say first of all to people my uh age and my generation, we came through, you know, maybe hit it in the 90s. Um, we’re we were all part of the shut up and sing generation and I regret that and I hope that you do too if you’ve at all withheld the the things that that um that you need to take a stand on. Uh we don’t need to go full like South Park you know you know caricature of of ourselves and go out and you know everything’s green and but I I I think it is important to take a stand personally. Who are you? Where do you stand? like they say on, you know, you can’t be neutral in a moving train. You don’t have to go full ad, you know, advocate of everything, but let’s not be afraid of losing half our our our audience anymore. The the the country is is sliding quickly from the democracy we knew. And um freedom of expression is more important than anything. So that would be to my my contemporaries. Uh to kids, be yourself. Be a freak. Take a stand on something. how you feel, who you are, what’s going on around you. If we’ve been told for our whole life that we can’t spend money on the arts because it’s not important, it’s not important, then why did the first thing they do go in and take over the Kennedy Center uh and and our arts? Why would that be the first thing? If it’s not important, it’s extremely important. It’s the bedrock of self-expression. That’s what I would tell people. And I would, you know, u now I say we need to we need to do it while we can. It it’s feeling a little spookier by the day out there, but look around. We can still do what we’re doing. We’re having this conversation. You can go out and tell the truth with your music and use your microphone. Speaking of doing what you can do with your music, your microphone, your voice, everybody go and download Benfolds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra. You could stream it, purchase it, go and get it. Ben Folds live with the National Symphony Orchestra. Thanks, Ben Folds. Thank you very much. Ben, myself, everybody hit subscribe. Let’s get to six million subscribers. The truth is

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the impact of Donald Trump’s disastrous cuts across all sectors—from cancer research to weather forecasting to the arts. Meiselas interviews legendary musician Ben Folds, who resigned from his lead advisory position at the National Orchestra after Trump’s hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center. Folds describes how he was able to release a new album recorded at the Kennedy Center while Trump wasn’t paying attention.

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43 comments

  2. We’ve been funding cancer research for decades and still the majority of cases are treated with chemo and or radiation with poor outcomes. Perhaps it’s time for change

  4. Mr. Folds, you are a brave and passionate man and we totally support your decision. We need more like minded people walk out on the pig in chief.

  5. Listen to the album. It's on apple music (and probably Spotify). (My review)

    (Listening to this while i copy 1.2 TB of Native instruments to a SSD)

    My Favorites (AND a review/explaination as I see it):

    * Pay close attention to Kristine from the 7th grade. It really is describing a lot of what's going on in the United states. It's an example of how the message can be coded in the song and they can't even figure out its about them.

    * Almost forgot about Fragile. (DOGE)

    * Effington is amazing too. My favorite line is "if there is a god, he is laughing at us and our football team."

    * Capable of Anything is an homage to going overboard with everything. "We are told we are capable of anything, you dont seem to think you are."

    * Still fighting it is just good classic song writing.

    * You don't know me is amazing and (because it's Regina Spektor.)

    * Landed reminds of James Taylor's I've seen fire and I've seen rain.

    * Cologne is about his feelings of leaving Kennedy Center. It's so good especially about going on to new ventures. (the surprise resignation)

    * Moments is about not enjoying the small moments of life. Holding onto them instead of just enjoying them.

    * Gracie is just a good song about a child growing up.

    * It ends in an absolute masterpiece called Not the Same. The choir and audiance singing is so good.

    By this point, the ssd copy was only 30% done lol. So I will probably be listening through the album again. Needless to say, this album will be in heavy rotation. And in short the cirumstances that lead to Ben to resign didn't need to happen. But, I don't think we will see the end of work like this. There are artists in life that can just command people and groups wanting to work with someone by name alone. I think this will be the case with Ben.

  8. Things like cancer research and emergency weather reporting aren't partisan or political. Trump isn't deleting important things like this as part of a political move, he's doing things like this specifically to hurt the US to please Putin because he's a Russian asset.

  10. Trump is going to do the old Game he's gonna Robbed the Americans and then Run to Saudia Arebia leave Americans with BBTAB He never pays back " SUCKERS AND LOOSERS"

  13. Curious coincidence FYI: Joseph Goebbels controlled the arts in Nazi Germany. As the Propaganda Minister, he exercised control over all German mass media and creative artists through his ministry and the Reich Chamber of Culture, which was established in the fall of 1933.
    — Wikipedia

  14. I'm not a fan of Trump by any measure. But your news style for someone who claims to be a reliable source is a a little bit dramatic in terms of its content and clickbait thumbnails and headlines.. just give us the facts without the drama! You'd get more respect. Don't be like them!

  15. Donald destroy everything he touches. His first term, he divided America. Mishandled COVID 19 pandemic killing thousands and thousands of Americans. Attacked the State Capitol and threatened the life of Vice President Pence. With many other crimes. Second term, he will crush the world with full immunity.

  16. How can Trump make all these cuts to weather and health but build a place on the White House grounds for holding martial arts fights? He probably wants to name it the Trump Center. Next, he'll try to change the White House to the Trump House.

  17. I wouldn't necessarily say Trump was "blindsided" by Ben's resignation. In fact, I'm pretty sure that idiot doesn't even know who Ben Folds is. You don't need misleading headlines when the news is actually this fucked up.

  18. I read all these comments about needing to get rid of him, impeachment etc. BUT WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL DURING THE ELECTION??? BY NOT SHOWING UP, YOU ALL VOTED TRUMP IN….SO STFU!!! You were all so afraid of voting in a black female, so you stayed home!!! So STFU!! YOU DID THIS!!!

  19. I guarantee if larry flint was still alive running hustler magazine he would name donald j trump the 'asshole of the month' for at least 48 months in a row!

  20. I read all these comments about needing to get rid of him, impeachment etc. BUT WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL DURING THE ELECTION??? BY NOT SHOWING UP, YOU ALL VOTED TRUMP IN….SO STFU!!! You were all so afraid of voting in a black female, so you stayed home!!! So STFU!! YOU DID THIS!!!

  28. Orange Felon has lived longer than most Americans ever will. His self-centered Ego has NO empathy or care for any of us living long. Greed put him in power and Greed is all he serves until he dies.

  29. I think if President Trump had a problem with any medical situation you know he would not cut that one off.
    But does he care about anyone else?

  30. People Trump didn’t do this.
    He’s not a magician
    He may declarations and all the cowards around him, bowed down and said OK .
    We are literally being rounded up by people who aren’t following a law.
    It is a free for all.

  33. I won't be going to the Kennedy Center for a while. Disappointing, but I'm not supporting this group while they've taken it hostage.

  34. What happened to the common sense of people? Human Life should be the first priority of the administration and the people. It seems to me that this is population control.

  36. Theis century has a new destructive – Gheghis Khan – A man who operates – above the laws that create a civilised Nation.
    A destroyer of all that is valuable to the civilisation. The equivilent to the burning of the Alexander library, the stash of the accumulated knowledge of that civilisation,
    a huge loss to the world.
    His superiority complex knows no bounds. Mar a Largo, surrounds himself in ostatation, chandeliers and lackeys to maintain it all.
    Blond worshipping bimbos and stupid logo hats that are in total contrast to the intentions in his head.
    The hats keep his hair from taking off and also he imagines makes him look like a baseball hero. He uses his position to further enrich HIMSELF at every opportunity!
    He is playing golf while America is being burnt by his cruel policies.
    He hates defeat and people seeing through him so he is ;
    dismantling everything that protects Americans or gives them power or hopes.
    BECAUSE HE CAN – by his destructive – executive orders and immunity to prosecution.
    A total misfit, pretender to the throne and protected by those billionaires that he in turn protects.
    Wake up Americans – Stop hanging on to and believing his blatant propaganda media releases. Look at what he is actually advocating in his vindictive retaliations .
    The only communism behaviour is coming directly from the – INVADED Whitehouse.
    The commune of the Titans and billionairs who are Self Entitled parasites.
    Rose Dingwall

  39. You tube or Meidas Has labeled this episode as “Trump Blindsided By Surprise Resignation” . To be clear Ben, Trump should be impeached and stripped of the money he has made off of his presidency and imprisonment would give me final satisfaction. You have outlined many planned events toward dismantling our democracy. However, it irritates me when you advertise or title an episode and then the content does not coincide with the title. I watched most of it and became increasingly irritated- it appears you are titling for clicks- your content does not relate to the title. This practice adversely affects your trustworthyness. If I can not trust in what you say- it diminishes my desire to watch. This is not just a one time occurrence. I understand the desire to make more money, but not at the expensive credibility- Or how are you different from fox? Please stop it!

  40. 6 members of the Supreme Court needs to be impeached, convicted and kicked out at the end of Trump’s term. Let’s pray that our beloved country doesn’t implode before that.

  41. I get so tired of clicking on your videos and discovering that the key detail is (i.e. who resigned) is burried deep in the middle of a 20 minute video. Downvoted. Stop wasting my time. Lead with the title, and then give details that I can consume if I'm interested. Prioritizing your watch time over my time ==> downvote

  42. A larger faction of voters think Trump/BBB spend too much. This minority that wants to spend more needs to drop the slogans and deal with facts.

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