Beltway Insider: Trump, White House Bans Media, JFK Center, Denmark, Greenland, Russia, AI Conundrum

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Category: Haute This Issue

Published on Saturday, 19 September 2026 14:59

Written by Janet Walker

President Trump has responded to the futuristic warnings over the past weeks from technology companies who fear society is moving to fast into the Artificial Intelligence world and has announced the creation of an AI Czar.

The President's job approval rating, according to The New York Times for the period ending September 19, 2026, of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President increased by 1% to 38% and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as president increased by 1% to 59%. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

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White House Bans Major News Outlets

The White House has barred access to three news organizations CNN, Politico, and MS NOW, and has the secret service confiscated the press passes.

Calling the organizations "Fake News" outlets, the President who has often been rash in his decisions regarding the media, and throughout both terms he has targeted media outlets that he felt mischaracterized him or presented him in bad light.

Free speech advocacy groups condemned the ban, calling it a violation of the First Amendment, which protects free speech and prohibits punishment of journalists based on the content of their reporting. "This is about more than the rights of journalists," White House Correspondents' Association President Jacqui Heinrich said in a statement. [. . .] "It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation's highest office," reported The Washington Post.

During the president first term CNN reporter Jim Acosta was suspended and the media outlet sued to have him reinstated. Playboy magazine reporter Brian Karem was also suspended, and the outlet challenged the suspension and his credential were reinstated.  

During his second term, the president, who won the election has a convicted felon, has targeted mainstream media outlets including the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journals, and now, CNN, Politico and MS NOW, primarily over the coverage of his decisions and his close ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

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Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts Expected to Close

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has served every president since its opening on September 8, 1971, has been closed after President Trump withdrew the funds needed for renovation, when a court ordered he could not add his name to the building.

"President Donald Trump's 19-month effort to seize full control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts came to a head Tuesday as its board voted to immediately close the building for a two-year renovation — a roughly $250 million overhaul that Trump publicly threatened to block unless his name is added to the institution," The Washington Post reported.

As the president often vacillates to secure his decision are granted, the renovations which he had, once again utilized the judicial system to gain leverage. His plan, which he stated, included attempting to leverage the conservative leaning Supreme Court to intervene and overrule a lower courts decision barring him from adding his name to the building's façade.

The best decision for the ailing Kennedy Center is to close, begin the renovations and after the 2028 presidential election is held and the temperature in the nation returns to some level of normalcy, hold a grand gala.

As the president continues to remake Washington into a city of monuments dedicated to himself, The Triumphal Arch, which The White House has announced they hope to begin construction before the end of September, has continued to face resistance.

Architectural renderings of the 250 foot high marble arch with gold statures across the top is stunning. Should the Triumphal Arch be completed will resemble the Arc de Triumph in Paris, or the Washington Square Park Arc in New York City and is expected to the be tallest arch in the world.

The controversy surrounding the arch is how it is expected to disrupt the city planners sight line. "The Triumphal Arch, [. . .] will be built on the currently empty circle at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, blocking the view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery," reported ABCnews.com.

The arch poses additional problems for the very busy ariel corridor, and the FAA is expected to present precise restrictions on the necessary lighting needed atop the arch to ensure at night, it is highly visible in a region heavy with commercial and military air traffic.

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Not the Time for Gentlemen

California Governor Gavin Newsom, (D), who has often been added in the conversation regarding 2028 Presidential candidates, announced this week, he would not run for the presidency if former Vice-President and 2024 Presidential nominee Kamala Harris decides to attempt a second run.

Once considered a front runner for the nomination, Newsom with his gentlemanly statement of holding the door open, has derailed his own value as a candidate, as politics is a cut-throat business, and proving a bloodthirsty desire proves to the voters that as a President America will come first.

"When Mr. Tapper laid out the case for why Ms. Harris, who has also expressed her interest in running for president again, might not be the best option because she has already been nominated and lost, Mr. Newsom agreed," The New York Times reported.

However, the 2028 Presidential race is the first in sometime where both parties need to win the nomination through the primaries. Neither party receives the pass of incumbency, and all potential presidential candidates, democrat and republican, must compete in the primaries.

The South Carolina primary, January 22, 2028, begins the race and Super Tuesday, held this season on March 7, 2028, has long been the point when two candidates, one from each party, sprint ahead and the presidential race officially is underway.

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The United States, Greenland, Denmark

The United Nations General Assembly, the annual gathering of all member nations of the United Nations, will meet next week in New York City, when it is expected to be formally announced the United States has made a permanent and binding pact with Greenland, which is a territory of Denmark to provide the region with military security and defense.

"In a statement with Greenlandic leaders, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: "I am pleased that there is the prospect of a good agreement for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States." [ . . .] NATO spokesperson Allison Hart also welcomed the announcement in a statement Saturday. "The Arctic and the North Atlantic are essential for our collective security, and this agreement will help advance security, stability, and cooperation in this vital region," she said," reported The Washington Post.

While the deal appears to provide the people of Greenland and Denmark additional security in the North Atlantic region, an area which has become a critical point as Russian President Vladimir Putin has also become increasingly interested in the region.

Even as the nations are separated by 3000 miles, and two waterways, the Arctic space has become more populated with both NATO forces and Russian submarines patrolling the waters. Russia has also modernized its Soviet era military bases transforming them with contemporary capabilities.

Even has Russia has been less than effective in its campaign against the Ukraine, Western Europe and NATO forces see him as tyrannical and unpredictable.

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Russia Issues Veiled Threats

Recent revelations of Russian drones tracking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's plane is just one of the stunning new revelations of Putin's effort to escalate the war and is willing to risk the full weight of the United States military believing that President Trump will never retaliate even if his plans injury or kill foreign diplomates, leaders or United States government personal in the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron explained to reporters that Putin, who has become increasingly erratic, has used near misses to send warnings to foreign leaders as veiled threats of future retaliation should either the American or British government continued to support Ukraine and enter the region.

Both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and CIA Director David Petaurus has been traveling on the same railway and minutes after they passed the region the train was destroyed by a drone strike.

Putin is not limited to silencing individuals who are critical of his ability as a leader or supporting the Ukraine in the continued effort to maintain its independence.

Recently, "a criminal indictment unsealed by the Justice Department accused operatives in Russian intelligence services of using encrypted communications apps to recruit assassins to kill dissidents or critics of Moscow. The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, describes communications in late August between alleged agents in Russia and an unidentified U.S. resident as part of a plot to "eliminate" or "disappear" a Russian dissident in Washington," reported The Washington Post.

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Coronavirus Total

At the order of the President of the United States, the U.S. no longer recognizes the value of The World Health Organization. The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens should receive at least one shot of an updated COVID-19 vaccine, annually.  The death toll from Covid-19 has dramatically decreased, as has transmission of the virus. Even as confirmed new cases continue each week, fewer are dying from each new variants.

For the 14 days ending September 19, 2026, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by the World Health Organization remained increased by 53,732 to 779,366,737. The total worldwide death toll did not increase over the past 14 days has increased by 254 to 7,116,554 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated August 9, 2026, from the World Health Organization).

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The Artificial Intelligence Conundrum

Dire warnings over the past two weeks have heralded a new concern over the use of Artificial Intelligence tools, the potential for cognitive decline, serious economic blowback,

The AI Conundrum is akin to the funnel style of writing, at the top are the large issues effecting everyone, the biological AI threats, and even the million man humanoid army in development by China, which will one day be the army of choice by all the world's bad actor nations as they attack generational enemies.

Of course, the AI bad actor, is also a concern. Bad actors are in every profession, in every country, around the world and they don't need AI. Unfortunately, AI Bad Actors will introduce on society an elevated threat as the technology is weaponized. The potential is large scale disinformation campaigns, which we have endured, and bio-threats of every kind.

As the funnel narrows the conundrum slowly filters to the individual and how Artificial Intelligence effects every citizen individually.

Cognitive decline, or the dumbing down of society, can be seen two ways, for its face value the actual loss of intelligence based on failure to engage parts of the brain associated with memory, as AI tools do the work for the user, the user does not need to engage or read or memorize or otherwise activate the pre-frontal cortex (short term memory) and the hippocampus, think of this as the data storage center of the brain, it takes the facts and logs them for long-term storage, which is true.

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"One 2025 study out of M.I.T. found that people who used chatbots as writing assistants struggled to remember what they had written only minutes after finishing their essay. "You basically didn't engage any of the memory networks that would actually help you remember," said Nataliya Kos'myna, a M.I.T. researcher who worked on the study. Other research has shown that people who have greater trust in A.I. and rely on it more are more likely to have lower cognitive engagement, reported The New York Times.

The use of AI tools for needed research, writing, and other long-term facts and presentations may have a damaging effect on the researcher ability to remember, especially as the solution was found through superfast communications with a computer.  

For others, the dumbing down of society equates to the possibility of weeding out the competition in the employment marketplace, which can be a boon for many who are routinely overlooked during the hiring process.

Expectations are that AI will significantly reduce the American workforce. Bill Gates, 70, the founder of Microsoft, said recently in The New York Times, "mass job losses, if not addressed, were inevitable because A.I. would spread across the economy and leave little room for one industry to absorb the refugees from another. The biggest tech companies in the world, including Microsoft, are racing to help corporate customers adopt A.I., which could replace many workers."

Tech companies are reeling from his predictions, as forty years ago, his statements where on the tech boom, and the creation of millions of new, high-paying jobs.

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This is the problem that each government must address. Universities should be required to teach the full scale AI package, which many are navigating these uncarted technological abyss to find the middle ground. Moreover, governmental agencies supervisory national education programs should adopt new polices to include AI.

"In Australia, the University of Sydney has adopted the "two-lane approach," seen as a global model. Across disciplines, students must complete some assessments in person, under secure conditions meant to restrict A.I. But other assignments must use A.I., to help familiarize students with the technology that is reshaping the economy.  "It's almost like sex ed," said Anita Sarma, a professor of computer science at Oregon State who has studied the impact of A.I. on student cognition. "They will do it anyway," she said. "How do we teach them responsible use?,"' reported The New York Times.

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For more information on President Donald Trump: Whitehouse.gov.

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.