Politics
Trump Supports the Police, Just as Long as They Support Him
On Monday, the Washington police union was decrying President Trump’s use of pardons when he let off rioters who attacked more than 150 officers on Jan. 6, 2021. By Wednesday, the same union was praising Mr. Trump after he pardoned two of their own who had been convicted in connection with the death of a young Black man.
With his flurry of pardons this week, Mr. Trump sent contradictory messages about his support for police. He showed he would support them in many situations, even when prosecutors and juries say they have gone too far. But his decision-making appeared centered less on “backing the blue” than on whether those in blue backed him.
Mr. Trump made this clear when he used his clemency power to wipe clean the records of around 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants, including those who had used stun guns and chemical spray on police officers. A day later, he teased that he would soon issue clemency to help police officers convicted after a chase that killed a 20-year-old Black man, Karon Hylton-Brown, in 2020. Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death — and a coverup by the police — led to protests in the nation’s capital.
To some degree, the one-two punch of decisions was typical politics. Mr. Trump’s pardons angered a constituency he prizes, so he followed up with a move meant to appease police. But some saw a distinct racial dynamic at play, with the president siding with a largely white mob on Jan. 6 and with white police officers in Mr. Hylton-Brown’s killing.
David L. Shurtz, a lawyer for Mr. Hylton-Brown’s family, said he “absolutely” believed race had played a role in the pardons.
Amaala Jones-Bey, the mother of Mr. Hylton-Brown’s 4-year-old daughter, said the contradictions in Mr. Trump’s decisions on pardons were baffling. “You just pardoned people who caused harm to your police officers but now he’s pardoning police officers who harmed citizens,” she said.
Wednesday was not the first time Mr. Trump has backed military or law enforcement officers accused of breaking the law. During his first term, he granted clemency to U.S. military officers who had been convicted or accused of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Throughout his time in office, Mr. Trump often used his pardon power to benefit friends and allies, something other presidents have done as well.
But at no time was that impulse as clear or as wide-ranging than when he granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Many of the rioters wore Make America Great Again hats, and, at one point, they even took down an American flag flying at the Capitol to replace it with a Trump flag — a symbol their loyalty was to a man, not to the nation.
Police unions are another area of support for Mr. Trump, including the National Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed his campaign but condemned the pardon of the Jan. 6 rioters.
Even in condemning the Jan. 6 pardons, though, the Washington police union continued to advocate clemency for Officer Terence Sutton and Lt. Andrew Zabavsky of the Metropolitan Police Department, the men convicted in the case of Mr. Hylton-Brown. The union had argued that the men were victims of overzealous prosecutors who had criminalized actions that could have been addressed with training.
In announcing that he planned to issue clemency in the case, Mr. Trump mangled the facts and accused Mr. Hylton-Brown, an American citizen, of being an “illegal.”
“It just shows who has the power here in America,” Ms. Jones-Bey said. “I also feel a little shaken because if he thinks he’s an illegal citizen, where is he getting his information from? Is he actually paying attention?”
Mr. Sutton had been sentenced to more than five years in prison for second-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the unauthorized pursuit. Mr. Zabavsky was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring with Mr. Sutton to cover up the deadly police chase. The two had been free pending the outcome of their appeals.
The Washington police union celebrated the clemency, praising Mr. Trump for carrying out a “monumental correction” of what it called an “injustice.”
Gil Kerlikowske, a former police chief in Seattle and three other cities, said he believed Mr. Trump’s pardoning of the two D.C. police officers was an attempt to restore his relationship with the police after the Jan. 6 pardons.
But he said he believed the decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters would be remembered in the law enforcement community, in part because the video footage of the day is readily available.
“They say it’s all in the past,” Mr. Kerlikowske said. “With all the videos, clearly it’s not in the past. You can relive this.”
Officer Daniel Hodges, who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said he agreed with Mr. Trump’s pardons in the case of Mr. Sutton and Mr. Zabavsky. But he cautioned against viewing Mr. Trump as a friend of law enforcement.
“He really isn’t a friend of police,” he said. “He’s a friend of people who flatter him.”
Mr. Hodges has been outspoken about the display of racism he saw on Jan. 6, and famously said at the time that it had been his “pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection.”
But four years later, Mr. Trump has returned to Washington victorious, and Officer Hodges was assigned to work the inauguration, protecting the president.
“It’s what the people voted for,” he said of Mr. Trump’s inauguration. “So it’s my job to make sure that it happens peacefully and securely. I’m not going to let my personal feelings influence how I perform my job.”
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Gilad Thaler, Jon Miller, Stephanie Swart, Rafaela Balster, Whitney Shefte and Nikolay Nikolov
May 29, 2026
Politics
Federal judge orders Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center, says only Congress can rename it
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A federal judge on Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, said the iconic venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress, ruling that the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees overstepped its “statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming” the building.
As part of his ruling, the Trump administration will be required to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and eliminate any references to a “Trump-Kennedy Center” from official materials.
TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER’S BOARD VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE $257M RENOVATIONS AND TWO-YEAR CLOSURE
A sign is displayed on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building. (Getty Images)
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center vice president of public relations, said the board plans to appeal the decision.
“We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”
The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,’ LEAVITT SAYS
President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box during a tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2025. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name must be removed from he iconic venue. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Cooper previously denied a request for a preliminary injunction filed by a preservation group to block the planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for a rehabilitation project.
Trump secured $257 million from Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to address disrepair and deferred maintenance of the Kennedy Center, which critics say has been neglected and mismanaged before Trump intervened.
The funds appropriated by Congress are spent on maintenance, repairs, security, and capital projects related to the building and site.
Beatty, who serves as an ex officio member of the board, praised Friday’s ruling.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”
Workers install Donald J. Trump signage above the existing Kennedy Center sign in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
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Trump’s name was added to the venue last December following a unanimous decision by the board. In February 2025, Trump was elected chairman of the Kennedy Center board after removing 18 trustees appointed by former President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON — A framework agreement to end the U.S. war with Iran is all but settled, pending sign-off from the presidents of the two warring sides, President Trump said Friday, projecting optimism that a deal could finally be at hand.
Yet doubt cast a shadow over the diplomatic process entering the weekend as Trump faced a politically fraught decision to enter an agreement that would invariably require significant concessions to Tehran.
The negotiations have faced severe headwinds in recent days, with both sides accusing the other of violating a fragile ceasefire that has largely stopped the fighting since April.
On his Truth Social site, Trump said he had summoned his top aides to the White House Situation Room to decide on the deal.
The agreement would see an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and the removal of Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway through which 20% of the world’s energy supply passes each day. The strait, Trump wrote, will reopen with “no tolls” for “unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions.”
And “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump wrote, noting that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons, “will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”
“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the deal would require Iran to disavow the continuation of its domestic nuclear program — a diplomatic feat never before achieved throughout a quarter-century of international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear work.
It is unclear whether Tehran would go that far. And Iran’s negotiators expressed defiance on Friday, stating that there was “no trust in guarantees or words” from the American side.
“No step will be taken before the other side acts first,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament. “We do not gain concessions through dialogue, but through missiles.”
It remains unclear when the Trump administration would ease sanctions on Iran, how extensive that relief would be, or what form it would take — questions that fueled Republican criticism of the Obama-era nuclear deal more than a decade ago.
The working diplomatic document would formally extend the existing ceasefire for 60 days, allowing for a more detailed negotiation to take place over Iran’s nuclear program. But the truce as it currently stands is on perilous ground. Iran launched a ballistic missile on Thursday at Kuwait, a close U.S. ally, after American forces took “defensive” actions against Iranian missile launchers and mine-laying boats it had launched in the strait.
The war has proved historically unpopular with the American public, and has seen oil prices soar since the U.S. military, in partnership with Israel, launched its first strikes against Iran in February.
Bessent said he is hopeful that oil prices would drop quickly once an agreement is signed. But industry analysts say the effects of the war on the oil market could last for months, if not years, with the stability of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz now in question for commercial shippers.
While oil has dropped to under $100 a barrel, markets appeared skittish on Friday over the prospects for a deal, with mixed messages appearing to emerge out of the region.
It is also unclear whether a U.S. agreement with Iran would in any way bind Israel’s hands in its military operations, either in Iran or in Lebanon, where an Iranian proxy militia, Hezbollah, has vowed to keep up the fight.
Israel has ramped up strikes against Hezbollah targets in recent days, jeopardizing a delicate ceasefire negotiated with the Lebanese government, a deal encouraged by the Trump administration in order to grease the wheels for its talks with Tehran.
Trump has been uncharacteristically silent on the prospects of an agreement in recent days, expressing cautious optimism in limited exchanges with reporters.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president’s going to sign,” Vice President JD Vance, who has led the U.S. diplomatic team, told reporters, noting that “the nuclear stuff” is still subject to negotiation. “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points.”
“I do think that we’ve made a lot of progress here,” Vance added. “Hopefully we’ll continue to make progress, and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement. But obviously, that’s still TBD.”
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