On this day in 2024, at least 25 people were killed when walkie-talkies exploded as a result of covert Israeli action in Lebanon and Syria. The blasts came a day after Israel did the same to pagers, targeting Hezbollah officials, killing 12, including two children. Around 3,500 were hurt in what UN experts called “terrifying” violations of international law
Good morning. Martin and Andrew, delighted to bring you the news you need to start your day.
Thursday was another average day in Donald Trump’s Washington – meaning in one sense averagely batshit, the president using White House remarks to muse about banning fishing, and in others averagely alarming.
Trump’s existential threat to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is one such worrying development. On that score, in today’s ‘First Draft’ we have a scoop for you, one that reveals more about the financial shape the center is in, thanks to Trump. We also look at a remarkable political ad cut by a senior GOP congresswoman in Lafayette Square next to the White House, which shows how Trump’s grip is slipping, and there’s more Iran news too. Let’s dive in.
‘It’s a Mess,’ Alright
Earlier this week, a federal judge said for a second time Donald Trump’s name could not be added to the exterior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the “living memorial” to the murdered 35th president on the banks of the Potomac in Washington, DC, because only Congress could order such a change. In response, the Trump administration closed the building down.
The next day, Trump said of the center: “It’s a mess. The Kennedy Center for many years has lost tens of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a loser financially… For me to go and fix it, I’m the one capable of fixing it and then have to subsidize it for years to come, because you will lose with the Kennedy Center, they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars and sometimes hundreds of billions, this is before I got involved.”
So Zeteo asked the Kennedy Center for its 2025 tax return, which was filed last month.
Handed over, it showed that while Trump’s claims about the center’s finances being in a perilous state may now be accurate – a slide reporting by the Washington Post has shown to have happened since the president took over the institution – he is both lying about previous losses and hiding his own deliberate financial assault.
The tax return does not show the Kennedy Center perpetually losing “hundreds of millions” or “sometimes hundreds of billions.” But it confirms issues, particularly around Trump’s takeover.
As of Sept. 30, 2025, the Kennedy Center had record net assets of $778 million. The center reported $517 million in revenue last year, and $210 million in revenue less expenses.
But if not for untapped appropriations from Congress – $257 million as part of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill – the center would have been in the red. That’s because it listed a $48 million “bad debt expense” in its tax return. Program revenue declined by $16 million and pledges and grants declined by $30 million in the seven or so months after Trump began his Kennedy Center takeover. That was before he added his name to the building, a move that reportedly caused ticket sales and donations to plunge much further.