Washington has a lot more demolition on the menu if the Trump administration gets its way.

The president is eyeing another major project in the nation’s capital, planning to destroy some 13 historic buildings on the grounds of St. Elizabeths in order to expand facilities for the Department of Homeland Security, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

St. Elizabeths was the first government psychiatric hospital, erected in 1855 and formerly known as the “Government Hospital for the Insane.” It was designated a national landmark in 1990. But earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought emergency approval to destroy it, alleging that the site had become a safety hazard for her agency.

Some of the buildings currently at risk of facing a wrecking ball include the 1891 addition of Burroughs Cottage, which was constructed by a wealthy couple to house their daughter and her nursing staff. At St. Elizabeths’ height, the sprawling campus housed more than 8,000 patients and was also the location of a nursing college. But the vast acreage of St. Elizabeths has since been reclaimed for government purposes. Over the last 15 years, DHS has occupied a significant portion of St. Elizabeths’ West Campus, while the East Campus remains under the control of the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health.

In a December 19 memo to the General Services Administration, Noem claimed that the buildings warranted a complete demolition on the basis that they “constitute a present risk to life and property.” She argued that the vacant buildings could be utilized by a shooter attempting to attack Homeland Security agents.

“Demolition is the only permanent measure that resolves the emergency conditions,” Noem wrote.

Preservationist groups were given just three days to respond to Noem’s request, and respond they did. Organizations fighting for the buildings’ ongoing conservation argued that Noem’s filing was “problematic,” and that if the buildings on the campus were deemed unsafe, then it was the DHS’s fault for failing “to effectively secure them.”

“A unilateral declaration like this is problematic because it bypasses the procedural safeguards designed to ensure stability, legitimacy and fairness,” read a letter jointly signed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the D.C. Preservation League. The two groups, writing to the GSA, further argued that Noem’s concerns “imply a fundamental flaw” in her agency’s “security as a whole.”

But the Trump administration is no stranger to steamrolling historic sites, even without the proper approval. After promising Americans in July that his ballroom proposal would “be near but not touching” the White House East Wing, Donald Trump completely razed the FDR-era extension in October, plowing forward without prerequisite approval from the National Capital Planning Commission or the express permission of Congress. Conveniently, Trump started demolition during the government shutdown, when the commission was consequently closed.

The Kennedy Center has been forced to cancel their annual New Year’s Eve concert as more artists pull out to boycott President Donald Trump changing the historic venue’s name to the “Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” 

Jazz supergroup The Cookers announced Monday that they wouldn’t be performing on New Year’s Eve. 

“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the band said in a statement, refusing to name Trump but alluding to their reasoning for pulling out. “We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”

One member of the group, saxophonist Billy Harper, had already made his feelings more clear. 

“I would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing,” he said in a previous interview. “After all the years I spent working with some of the greatest heroes of the anti-racism fight like Max Roach and Randy Weston and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stanley Cowell, I know they would be turning in their graves to see me stand on a stage under such circumstances and betray all we fought for, and sacrificed for, but also betraying all the listeners that believed (and still do) in our cause and our music.”

Trump-appointed Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell dismissed The Cookers as “far left political activists.” 

The Cookers’ withdrawal comes just days after the Kennedy Center was forced to cancel its annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam due to what Grenell described as “dismal ticket sales.” The concert was free.

The Kennedy Center has been in disarray since Trump’s hostile, anti-woke takeover earlier this year, as high profile creatives and performers from Issa Rae to Rhiannon Giddens cancel their performances. And ticket sales have suffered, too—pointing to even darker days ahead for a once highly regarded cultural institution.  

The president has repeatedly elevated posts made by a parody account mocking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, suggesting that he either enjoys the hyperbolic messaging or that he isn’t aware of the difference between Leavitt’s real account and the one making fun of her.

Donald Trump has already shared several screenshots from the account, @WHLeavitt, to his Truth Social page, despite the fact that it’s named “Fan Karoline Leavitt.” The account bio also reads “parody account,” a designation flagged by X.

One of the account’s posts that the president recirculated read: “BREAKING: Fulton County admits 315K 2020 votes lacked required poll worker signatures—a major rule violation.”

“Republicans demand restitution for Rudy Giuliani, hit with charges & $148M fine for contesting GA election,” it continued. “Do you support giving his money back?”

Another post by the parody page claimed that........

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