House panel votes to rename DC opera house after Melania Trump
Language inaugurating the Melania Trump Opera House was tucked by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) into an amendment to a government funding bill that cleared the House Appropriations Committee.
'Naming the Opera House at the Kennedy Center after [Melania Trump] is an excellent way to recognize the first lady's appreciation for the arts,' Simpson declared after lawmakers approved the amendment.
Advertisement
'I am proud to honor her support and commitment in promoting the arts and humanities.'
3 The measure is intended to honor First Lady Melania Trump's 'commitment in promoting the arts.'
Getty Images
Advertisement
3 President Trump has dramatically shaken up the Kennedy Center during his second term in the White House.
AP
The amendment cleared the Appropriations panel by a 33-25 vote, with Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) joining Republicans in backing it.
The opera house, one of three major performing venues at the waterfront complex which opened in 1971, seats 2,347 patrons and is the home theater of the Washington National Opera as well as the site of the televised Kennedy Center Honors every December.
Back in February, President Trump declared himself the chairman of the Kennedy Center and retooled its Board of Trustees.
Advertisement
'Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth – THIS WILL STOP,' Trump proclaimed on Truth Social at the time. 'The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!'
Last month, the president and first lady attended a performance of 'Les Misérables,' whose show-stopper 'Can You Hear The People Sing?' has been featured at Trump's campaign rallies.
3 Rep. Mike Simpson's amendment cleared the Appropriations Committee, but it is unclear whether it will become law.
AP
The House Appropriations Committee advanced its government funding bill for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations, which is one of 12 bills Congress needs to pass by Oct. 1 to fund the government.
Advertisement
But that bill, which funds agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, and the US Forest Service, still needs to clear the full House and the Senate, where Democrats can filibuster.
Simpson's amendment is the latest in a series of Republican tributes to the president.
In January, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) introduced a bill to put Trump's face on Mount Rushmore. Several weeks later, freshman Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) unveiled a proposal to put the 45th and 47th president's face on the $100 bill.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) introduced legislation in February to designate Trump's birthday — June 14 — a national holiday, while Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) pushed a measure to enable Trump to run for a third term.
In May, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) proposed a bill to block federal funds for the Washington, DC underground transit system until it renames the Metrorail as the 'TRUMP TRAIN.'
Multiple Republicans have also called for Trump to be given a Nobel Peace Prize for his foreign policy successes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
a minute ago
- CNBC
CNBC Daily Open: Japan markets rally on the country's 15% tariff rate — it's a new era of trade
The anchoring effect is one of the sneakiest tools companies use to make us spend money. Here's how it works. Let's say we're shopping for a smartphone manufactured by Dapple, which has just released two new models: a $1,200 model with a big screen and a $900 one that is more compact. The more expensive smartphone will serve as the "anchor" by which we make comparisons, so the $900 model will appear to be value for money — even if it is costly in absolute terms. But we're likely to feel good about choosing it because we've "saved" $300 on our purchase. This scenario seems to be what's happening with the U.S-Japan trade agreement freshly announced late Tuesday stateside. U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would gain access to Japan's markets for rice and cars — which had been sticking points during negotiations — while the latter would pay 15% tariffs on its exports to America. At first glance, that doesn't sound too positive for Japan. But investors celebrated the news — the Nikkei 225 jumped 3.8% at 1:45 a.m. ET. After all, a 15% tariff rate is a big improvement from the 25% tariff Trump slapped on Tokyo earlier this month. Furthermore, Japanese auto exports to the U.S. — which made up 28.3% of all shipments in 2024 — will face a tariff of 15%, lower than the universal 25% other countries are subject to. As Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, said, "It's a sign of the times that markets would cheer 15% tariffs. A year ago, that level of tariffs would be shocking. Today, we breathe a sigh of relief." That, in essence, is the anchoring effect at play. Trump announces 'massive' trade deal with Japan. The country's exports to the U.S. will face a 15% tariff, Trump said. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said auto tariffs on Tokyo will be lowered to 15% from the current 25% across countries. The U.S. and Indonesia agree on a trade framework. Imports into the U.S. from Indonesia will be set at 19%, while goods flowing from America to the Southeast Asian country will be tariff-free, according to a joint statement issued by the White House on Tuesday. Tariff suspension with China likely to be extended. The U.S. and China's 90-day tariff pause expires on Aug. 12. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. will be "working out what is likely an extension." The S&P 500 ticks up to a fresh record. That's the index's 11th record close in 2025. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose, but the Nasdaq Composite slipped. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped over 3% on Wednesday, fueled by a surge in auto stocks. [PRO] Tailwinds from China's $167 billion mega-dam project. China has kicked off construction on the world's largest hydropower dam, and analysts expect suppliers of the project to receive a huge boost. Chinese and EU leaders are about to meet — but the U.S. is complicating things China and the European Union will hold a top-level meeting in Beijing on Thursday, while the U.S. is making their already tense relationship more complicated. Clashes over trade and economic policy, technological issues and defense and security have been commonplace between China and the EU — and tensions have recently been heating up.
7 minutes ago
Beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam
Ken Beckley never went to Harvard, but he has been wearing a crimson Harvard cap in a show of solidarity. As he sees it, the Trump administration's attacks on the school echo a case of government overreach at his own alma mater, Indiana University. Beckley, a former head of the school's alumni association, rallied fellow graduates this spring in an unsuccessful effort to stop Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, from removing three alumni-elected members from Indiana University's Board of Trustees and handpicking their replacements. No government effort to influence a university — private or public — has gotten more attention than the clash at Harvard, where the Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding as it seeks a series of policy changes. But far beyond the Ivy League, Republican officials are targeting public universities in several states with efforts seeking similar ends. 'What's happened nationally is now affecting Indiana,' said Beckley, who bought Harvard caps in bulk and passes them out to friends. Officials in conservative states took aim at higher education before President Donald Trump began his second term, driven in part by the belief that colleges are out of touch — too liberal and loading up students with too much debt. The first efforts focused on critical race theory, an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation's institutions, and then on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Since Trump took office, officials in states including Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Idaho increasingly have focused on university governance — rules for who picks university presidents and boards and how much control they exert over curriculums and faculty tenure. As at Harvard, which Trump has decried as overly influenced by liberal thinking, those state officials have sought to reduce the power of faculty members and students. 'They've realized that they can take a bit of a step further, that they can advance their policy priorities through those levers they have through the state university system,' said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow who studies higher education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. In Indiana, Braun said he picked new trustees who will guide the school 'back in the right direction.' They include an anti-abortion attorney and a former ESPN host who was disciplined because she criticized the company's policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Braun's administration has ramped up scrutiny of hiring practices at colleges statewide. Indiana's attorney general, Todd Rokita, has sent letters to the University of Notre Dame, Butler University and DePauw University questioning the legality of their DEI programs. Butler, a private, liberal arts school in Indianapolis, was founded by an abolitionist in the decade leading up to the Civil War and admitted women and students of color from the start. 'I hope that Butler will uphold the standards they were founded on,' said Edyn Curry, president of Butler's Black Student Union. In Florida, the state university system board in June rejected longtime academic Santa Ono for the presidency at the University of Florida, despite a unanimous vote of approval by the school's own Board of Trustees. The unprecedented reversal followed criticism from conservatives about Ono's past support for DEI programs. That followed the conservative makeover of New College of Florida, a small liberal arts school once known as the state's most progressive. After Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a group of conservatives to its governing board, many faculty left, including Amy Reid, who now manages a team focused on higher education at the free-expression group PEN America. 'When our students started organizing at New College, one of their slogans was 'Your Campus is Next,'' said Reid, who saw the gender studies program she directed defunded and then cut. 'So no, we're not surprised when you see other states redefining what can be in a general education class, because we've seen it happen already.' The changes at several public universities are proceeding without battles of the kind seen at Harvard. In a standoff seen widely as a test of private universities' independence, Harvard has filed lawsuits against the administration's moves to cut its federal funding and block its ability to host international students. In Iowa, new DEI restrictions are taking effect in July for community colleges. And the board that governs the state's three public universities is weighing doing something similar to Idaho, where a new law imposes restrictions on requiring students to take DEI-related courses to meet graduation requirements. Historically, the Iowa board has been focused on big-picture issues like setting tuition rates and approving degree programs. Now, there's a perceived sense that faculty should not be solely responsible for academic matters and that the trustees should play a more active role, said Joseph Yockey, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and the former president of Iowa's faculty senate. 'What we started to see more recently is trustees losing confidence,' Yockey said. A new law in Ohio bans DEI programs at public colleges and universities and also strips faculty of certain collective bargaining rights and tenure protections. There are few guardrails limiting how far oversight boards can change public institutions, said Isabel McMullen, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin who researches higher education. 'For a board that really does want to wreak havoc on an institution and overthrow a bunch of different programs, I think if a board is interested in doing that, I don't really see what's stopping them aside from students and faculty really organizing against it,' McMullen said. The initiatives on state and federal levels have led to widespread concerns about an erosion of college's independence from politics, said Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors. 'They have to not only face an attack from the state legislature, but also from the federal government as well,' said Kamola, who is also a professor of political science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a pair of bills in June that impose new limits on student protests and give gubernatorial-appointed boards that oversee the state's universities new powers to control the curriculum and eliminate degree programs. Cameron Samuels, executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an advocacy group, said politicians in the state are taking control of universities to dictate what is acceptable. 'When someone controls the dissemination of ideas, that is a really dangerous sign for the future of democracy,' Samuels said. The 21-year-old who is transgender and nonbinary went to college in Massachusetts and got into Harvard for graduate school, but as the Trump administration began targeting the institution, he instead chose to return to his home state and attend the University of Texas in Austin. 'I at least knew what to expect,' he said.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump announces 'massive' trade deal with Japan
President Donald Trump says the US has agreed to a "massive" trade deal with Japan, one of the country's largest trading partners. The plan would result in Japan investing $550bn (£407bn) in the US and paying a 15% tariff, Trump said in a post on social media. He added that Japan would open its economy to US goods, including cars, trucks, rice and certain agricultural products. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed the announcement, saying it was "the lowest figure to date among countries with trade surpluses with the US". "I just signed the largest trade deal in history, I think maybe the largest deal in history with Japan," Trump touted at a White House event on Tuesday evening. "They had their top people here, and we worked on it long and hard. And it's a great deal for everybody. I always say it has to be great for everybody. It's a great deal," he added. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Ishiba said the agreement would mean US tariffs on vehicles and parts would be cut to 15% from 25%. "We were the first in the world to reduce tariffs on cars and auto parts without any quantity restrictions," he said. "The agreement does not include any reduction of tariffs on the Japanese side," Ishiba added. The BBC has reached out to the White House and Japan's embassy in Washington for more details of the trade agreement. Bringing its main tariff rate down to 15% is Japan's "best compromise at this stage", Shigeto Nagai from research firm Oxford Economics told BBC News. The planned investment in the US by Japan included in the announcement "will be a huge boost to restore the US, fitting in with Trump's story of reviving US manufacturing with more jobs," he added. In a letter sent to Japan this month, Trump threatened a 25% tariff on the country's exports to the US if there wasn't a new trade deal struck before 1 August. That was one percentage point higher from the 24% rate announced during his so-called Liberation Day on 2 April. The April tariffs plan, which included duties on many US trading partners across the globe, were paused for 90 days following worldwide market turmoil. It allowed Tokyo's trade representatives time to negotiate with their counterparts in Washington. Japan's benchmark share index, the Nikkei 225, was more than 3% higher on Wednesday in Tokyo, with strong gains for shares in motor industry giants - including Toyota, Nissan and Honda. The apparent deal comes as Ishiba is under pressure to step down after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority in the country's upper house in elections over the weekend. The LDP had already lost its majority in Japan's more powerful lower house last year.
