Calling Trump’s Bluff. It is happening with more frequency and success

by Dan Rather and Team Steady - Aug 27

To remain steady during Trump’s second reign requires an iron will.

There are days when the actions of this president are heartbreaking. Others when he’s an embarrassment. On this day, it is both.

Just when you think you’ve been hardened against Trump’s petulant histrionics, he strikes again, now threatening to do to another monument of our democracy what he did to the East Wing of the White House. If he doesn’t get his way.

We are long past the head-scratching, morally questionable, often illegal decisions by the president. He is now far off the deep end. On Wednesday, Trump and his Justice Department lawyers one-upped themselves on the are-you-kidding-me meter.

The lawyers are arguing that blocking the renovations of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including removing Trump’s name, would thwart fundraising efforts and could potentially lead to the degradation of the building and grounds. Court filings state, “The center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down…”

“Taken down,” as in demolished, flattened, much like the president did to the East Wing. Unlike with that inexcusable and covert decision, this time the courts are involved, ready to call his bluff. His lawyers were in court Thursday trying to make their flimsy case stick. The judge was beyond skeptical. No ruling has been made yet.

This all started in February 2025 when Trump excised the Kennedy Center board and much of its staff. He appointed loyalist replacements and made himself chairman. Since then, the sycophants have marched in lockstep with Trump’s whims, including adding his name to the center, not just on paper but in huge metal letters bolted to the marble facade.

In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that only Congress has the authority to change the name of a presidential memorial. “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.” He ordered Trump’s name removed.

The Kennedy Center was built as a living arts memorial to President John F. Kennedy. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was the driving force behind getting it built. And it is far from deteriorating.

The only thing in trouble at the center is its finances since the president took over. It has gotten even worse since Trump’s name was added in December. “It was just an absolute fiscal cliff. Donors disappeared, ticket sales disappeared, artists disappeared — like it was doomsday,” an official familiar with the center’s finances told The Washington Post.

Now just his name is not enough. Trump wants the building to be called “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump, Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

Trump’s obsession with the center is driven by his fascination with Kennedy, his legacy, and the glamour associated with Camelot. Trump wants the world to see him as a modern-day Kennedy. What better way than to attach his name to one of the former president’s most revered legacies?

As is happening with the Kennedy Center, calling Trump’s bluff is becoming the go-to reaction to his increasingly unhinged demands. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Iran, where his wishy-washy negotiating strategy has netted zero. Even his threat of total annihilation of Iran didn’t move the needle.

Not only does Iran still control the Strait of Hormuz, but they are also now cutting a revenue-sharing deal with Oman to run it. That’s Oman, a long-standing strategic partner of the U.S. Trump’s most recent gambit, Operation Economic Outcast, imposes secondary sanctions on any country that does business with Iran.

Good luck with that, since Iran’s top trading partner is China. The country has successfully challenged Trump’s ultimatums. Last October, Trump threatened a ludicrous 100% tariff on Chinese imports. Rather than trying to cut a deal with Washington, China stood firm, and Trump backed down.

That scenario is becoming more common internationally as world leaders recognize Trump’s eroding power at home with his plummeting poll numbers, a predicted shellacking in the midterms, dozens of losses in court, and an increasing inability to convert the panic he creates into action.

While flattering Trump is still the order of the day for most global leaders, when it comes to actual policy positions, they have stopped flinching at his hostile but empty threats.

“We are getting used to these daily announcements. We don’t take them so seriously anymore,” Brando Benifei, a member of the European Parliament, told The Post.

His saber-rattling no longer makes them quake as it did at the beginning of his second term. During his first hundred days, Trump imposed massive tariffs on dozens of the country’s traditional trading partners. Most couldn’t get to Washington fast enough to negotiate trade deals.

His recent demand for a new round of tariffs was met with the diplomatic equivalent of a shrug, according to the Post. France didn’t push back or ask for a deal. The U.K. said its exporters would be unaffected, while Mexico waved them off. Financial markets, which were sent into freefall by earlier tariffs, barely moved.

One world leader who seems to always have the upper hand when it comes to Trump is Russian President Vladimir Putin. A recent trip by Trump’s head of the CIA to Moscow is putting a spotlight on that relationship. Solo trips by CIA directors to the Russian capital are unusual, though Trump characterized it as “sort of semi-routine.”

On Tuesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe did not fly commercially or take a government jet. Instead, he flew to Moscow on a heavy-transport military plane. He had a quick meeting with Putin aides and then turned around and flew back to Washington.

According to The Wall Street Journal, he was sent to deliver a message to the Russian president: don’t attack NATO countries. Will Putin heed Trump’s warning? Or will he, like many other leaders are doing, ignore Trump’s bluster?

The mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “is to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members. It does this through political and military means, ensuring the collective defence of all Allies, against all threats, from all directions.” Attacking one of its 32 members means attacking all. Or at least it has.

The Journal reports U.S. intelligence has picked up indications Putin is planning to invade another of his neighbors, as he has done with Ukraine. But Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Now, reportedly, he has in mind one of the small NATO member nations like Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia.

Some foreign policy experts argue that if Putin wanted to flex his muscles and undermine NATO, now would be the time. Trump has indicated he doesn’t care about Europe or the alliance. Munition shortages are “beyond critical” because of the war in Iran. The Post is now reporting Putin believes the U.S. has been weakened by the Iran war.

If Putin attacked, he would be betting that the U.S. would not join the defense, potentially ending one of the most successful military alliances in world history.

The world has learned that these flashes of Trump’s unsound behavior can quickly fade. He can be dangerous, but more often these days delusional would be a better characterization. We will get through it. But knowledge and resolve are key. His actions can’t be shrugged off. To normalize his behavior is to ignore or accept it.