Cal Thomas has finally found an issue with Trump.

[JohnnyRingo]

Cal Thomas is an uber-conservative editorialist and co-host of "The Five" on Fox News. He doesn't have a democratic bone in his brittle old body. I read his column each week in my print newspaper and usually only get halfway through before I shake my head and move on.

Until today. I had to finish the piece searching for one good word about Trump, but there was barely a one.
It seems he is a man of the theatre and fine tradition, and that cracked his MAGA armor. I imagine the newspaper delivered to the Oval Office has a big redaction.

The Trump-Kennedy Center

By Cal Thomas

Tribune Content Agency

Last Friday evening I attended the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with my wife and two friends to listen to a wonderful performance of Handel’s “Messiah.”

The Kennedy Center has been among the few places in Washington (sports arenas are another) where one can get through a day or evening without the confrontational and corrosive political language that has infected the city. Not anymore.

President Trump, with the approval of a board he appointed, has added his name to the building. Henceforth, or until a future president and board will remove it (one can only hope), the place will be labeled, if not called by everyone, the Trump Kennedy Center.

I recall the first performance in what has become Washington’s main cultural attraction. It was on Sept. 8, 1971 and the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” a work commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy. The Kennedys did more to bring high-brow culture to Washington than any other president and first lady. President Trump has brought nothing, not even close, that can match their contributions.

During the day on Friday, workers were already drilling the additional name into the outside of the building. The Kennedy Center website has been re-labeled “Trump Kennedy Center.”

There is talk around town that Trump has only begun to add his name to other buildings. One prospect he is reportedly eyeing is the soon-to-be finished Washington Commanders (formerly “Redskins”) football stadium. I got to thinking about other places where Trump might affix his name.

He keeps it going strong here:
https://calthomas.com/2025/12/trump-adds-names/

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Even Cal Thomas is seeing the light!

Are pigs flying?

[a kennedy]

4. and thank gawd for this......he's exactly right tho.....the Kennedy Center is about the arts, culture, and grace.

Fawking tRump??? HAS NONE OF THIS, HE’S A BIG FAT FAWKING PIECE OF SHIT, AND HIS GAWD NAME ONLY BELONGS ON THE LOWEST OF THE LOW ITEMS, ya know, like, garbage bags that were full of doggie shit, and puke, or toilets that are backed up, or diapers filled with the unimaginable stuff. No his gawd name does NOT BELONG ON THE KENNEDY CENTER building. 🤬 🤮 🤬 🤮 🤬 How soon before I get arrested???

[Paladin]

5. Astounding development!

Trump's awful behavior, alienating the likes of Cal Thomas. Extraordinary. This will reverberate, particularly amongst seniors who are familiar with Thomas' rabid-right stances over the years. Encouraging!

[flashman13]

16. Only because Trump has gored his personal favorite ox. Otherwise I'm sure he is still a good with Donny.

[marble falls]

2. I am waiting for him to change the name of a certain museum to the Trump Holocaust Museum.

[samplegirl]

3. It's about time

Not everything is a hoax!

[czarjak]

6. Cal's still living?

[Chasstev365]

7. Seriously; how old is that fossil?

[czarjak]

27. Stone-Aged?

[yonder]

17. Surprise here also. He was old 40 years ago

Edit: Wikipedia says he's 83. This photo is from 2012 and looks like someone like him should look like. I seem to remember he was sporting a porn star mustache back then.

[Polybius]

22. He ditched the 'stache sometime before then

I'd say it was gone by the mid-2000's.

[czarjak]

26. He used to be in our local paper's editorial page.

WhiteSupremacy2Spare! Ask him!

[yonder]

28. Ours too. Don't remember him past '85-90 thereabouts.

[Kid Berwyn]

39. The poor man's Pat Buchanan.

Both are pieces of shit.

[Raven123]

8. So Cal has a problem with naming stuff, but destroying people is ok?

His column is printed in my local paper as well. I find it odd that he was griping about the DOJ (while Biden was president) pursuing him for his criminal activities, but naming stuff is the thing that trips his trigger.

[JohnnyRingo]

18. In my house we take our blessing at face value.

Turning on Trump for his narcissism is not a cause for dispute.
Let us hope the dominos continue to tumble.

[electric_blue68]

9. Heh, a name I haven't heard in a long time.

A chink in the armor so to speak.

[Bluejeans]

10. I remember Cal Thomas and his sneering public comments during the late 1980s and 1990s

Cal Thomas with his sneering public comments during the late 1980s and 1990s contributed a great deal to the "confrontational and corrosive political language" in today's public sphere.

As my dear departed mother would say, "He must be dying; he's clearing his conscience now!"

[JHB]

11. "Conservative" has been the polite term for Right Wing for over a century

Not every conservative is Right Wing, but Right Wingers love to call themselves "conservative." It's a soft-focus that hides the how extreme they are.

There's not really any point to the phrase "uber-conservative." Anybody it might apply to can be better characterized as Right Wing, Hard Right, Flaming, Foaming Right Wingnut, and Cal Thomas definitely qualifies for that.

[JohnnyRingo]

20. Do you remember when Bush / Cheney ran as "Compassionate Conservatives"?

They somehow back then did not want to seen as part of the Goldwater wing of the party. That kind of talk now will get them demoted to lavatory page.

[JHB]

23. Lavatory page would still be "on the team". They'd be hounded out as "woke RINOs"

[lastlib]

12. Is that a voice from the grave??

Surely that old fossil is long dead--if only his brain...... JHC, I thought his 15 minutes was up after we kicked W out. He must be 150 years old now. His ideas certainly are.

[Cirsium]

13. Not so fast

Cal Thomas and his cohorts enabled this nightmare. They worked for years to get us here. They don't get to just step away.

[JHB]

24. Precisely my beef with "NeverTrumpers", though my position gets scolded.

Apparently, they're our "allies" now. They utterly failed at what was supposed to the reason for making nice with them, namely to getting like-minded Republicans to vote for Democrats to beat Trump, and they're crowding actual liberals out of media spaces, but hey, allies, so you can't do anything rude like bring up the fact that they spent their careers creating a voter base of easily-manipulated Ahabs who were ripe for a guy who promised them White Whale steak dinners for life (and the hagfish will pay for it).

[Cirsium]

29. hear, hear

Well said.

[drmeow]

35. My attitude is

we use them as much as we need/can to help get rid of the f**kers they enabled but we should then crucify them along side those f**kers unless they show TRUE sustained remorse and better ideology (i.e., they have truly changed ... for the better).

[JHB]

38. Use them for what? We've now had several election cycles where they didn't move the needle at all

Trump got more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, and got still more in 2024. So how many votes did they shift? Them and all 14 of their friends? They didn't do any better in downticket races, either.

Show remorse and change? Only Stuart Stevens really broke with his past, the rest of them just want to get back to the status quo of 2005. They pretend nothing was wrong before 2015. They still "both sides" all the time.

And just who is going to crucify them and how? And when? Because we are at (past) that point, but anyone who tries gets shushed up and scolded. Meanwhile, NeverTrumpers get loads of free media time and resources that ought to be going to people who've actually been right about the Right for oh, several decades now. Yet at the same time, people on our side lament that "we need our own Joe Rogan" and that liberal media posts are clickbaity to pay the bills because they don't get big donations to establish themselves like the Lincoln Project and The Bulwark did.

And since they have an outsized media reach and influence, by what means will they be crucified? It won't be on MSNOW, where they practically have a colony of paid contributors.

With a truncated handful of exceptions, their goal now is the same as it was in 2016: to position themselves for a post-Trump Republican Party.

[Fil1957]

14. A hardcore Maga facebook friend of mine, hasn't said anything about Trump in months. During that time he's

heavily trashed Democrats, lefties, etc. using the same old tired Fox talking points. But he hasn't said a word about Trump -- good or bad during that time. I'm guessing Trump is beginning to lose his support.

[JohnnyRingo]

31. Think about it....

Trump has done so many radically offensive things this year, everybody has had equal opportunity to despise him for one thing or another.
For Cal Thomas it was the Kennedy Center. And yes, he'll be back on "The Five" with a bag full of republican taking points.

[WestMichRad]

15. All the utterly despicable things that TSF has done...

… (too disgusting to reiterate here)… but it was putting his name on a cultural treasure that is the breaking point for Cal Thomas?
Sheesh… words fail me. (Shakes head in amazement.)
Crawl back under your rock, you shriveled fossil.

[JohnnyRingo]

32. I'm just glad he expressed his disdain for Trump in the national press.

You and I see nothing we like in him, but he's a Geezer Influencer, and this helps

[drmeow]

36. Because, like all right wing fascists

it only matters if it matters to or directly affects him!

[progressoid]

19. Is he still on TV?

[spooky3]

21. "Some Democrats are saying Congress should approve any name change" - NO

The *LAW* says any name change MUST be approved by Congress.

[JohnnyRingo]

25. i think it meant democrats said Congress must approve.....

....any name change made by the current president but DT continues regardless..

"Some Democrats are saying Congress should approve any name change. They are right, but Trump presses on ..."

No one has heard any republicans complaining.

[LudwigPastorius]

30. Yikes.

Old Cal looks like the undertakers started their work early.

[JohnnyRingo]

33. They say TV adds 10 pounds, but....

...the newspaper picture subtracts 10 years.

[travelingthrulife]

34. You made him, Cal.

If this is the only thing that bothers you about this rapist 34 count felon, then you have some big brain problems.

[drmeow]

37. "Trump Uranus might work, if that doesn't sound redundant."