President Trump walked into a room of his own allies on Thursday night and walked out to the sound of boos. The jeers came not from protesters or partisan opponents, but from an outside crowd of protestors – journalists, executives, and dignitaries gathered outside the private event at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington — a venue that bears his name.
Among the attendees who witnessed the chilly reception on April 23, 2026, were David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, and a contingent of CBS News correspondents.
Ellison is seeking Justice Department approval for a proposed $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, was also present. He oversees the Justice Department, including its antitrust division, which is expected to review the Warner Bros. deal. The transaction would place CNN, HBO and other assets under Mr. Ellison’s control. Paramount’s chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, was seated beside Mr. Trump as well.
The president addressed the attendees for almost an hour, among them Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller, a deputy chief of staff at the White House.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Institute of Peace on the National Mall to criticize Mr. Ellison and the proposed Warner Bros. sale. Several urged that the merger be blocked.
The moment quickly took its place in a growing catalog of public rebukes the president has absorbed across his second term, and well before it began.
A Pattern of Hostile Rooms
Thursday’s reception echoed Trump’s appearance at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington on May 25, 2024, where he was booed and heckled by a raucous audience. That night was punctuated by jeers, scattered cheers from a smaller pro-Trump faction, and one attendee who shouted that Trump “should have taken a bullet.”
Inside the hall a day before Trump’s speech, NBC News reported that one party member proposed the assembly “go tell Donald Trump to go f— himself,” drawing applause. Trump pressed on anyway, telling the crowd, “If I wasn’t a Libertarian before, I sure as hell am a Libertarian now.”
From the Stadium to the State of the Union
The pattern intensified after Trump returned to the White House. On November 9, 2025, he attended the Washington Commanders’ game against the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland — the first appearance by a sitting president at a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978. The pageantry was elaborate: an Air Force One flyover, a ceremonial military oath of enlistment, and House Speaker Mike Johnson at his side in the suite.
None of it muted the crowd. When the videoboard cut to Trump late in the first half, large sections of fans booed. The reaction repeated at halftime when the stadium announcer introduced him, and continued as he administered the oath to military members on the field. Videos of the moment spread rapidly online, with one widely shared post calling the scene “brutal” and “humiliating.” Trump left before the game ended.
Three months later, the hostility reached the chamber of the U.S. House. Trump’s State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, ran one hour and 47 minutes — the longest in American history, which the Northwest Progressive Institute described as a “raw, divisive, ugly” tirade. About 40 Democrats boycotted the speech entirely, including Senator Patty Murray and roughly half of Washington state’s House delegation. Many staged a People’s State of the Union on the National Mall.
Those who stayed inside did not stay quiet. When Trump claimed, “I ended eight wars,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan shouted back, “That’s a lie.” When Trump said the Russia-Ukraine war “never would have happened if I were president,” Tlaib demanded, “What are you talking about?” Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota interjected over the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, telling the president, “You’ve killed Americans.” Trump responded, “You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”
Senator Maria Cantwell, whose guest was Secretary Steve Hobbs, pushed back on Trump’s call to nationalize voting and end mail-in ballots, noting that under the Constitution, states run elections. “There is no role for the president,” she said.
More Boos at the Kennedy Center
President Trump and the first lady were greeted with a mix of cheers and boos when they appeared in the presidential box for the opening night of “Chicago” at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. The reception came as the couple attended one of the final productions before the venue — which Trump renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center after taking it over last year — closes in July for a two-year renovation. While White House spokesperson Liz Huston insisted Trump was “warmly welcomed by the crowd,” video clips circulated online captured audible jeers alongside the applause. The night took an additional turn when Eugene Ramirez, a former Sinclair national news anchor, said he was briefly detained by security after booing and giving the president a thumbs-down. Ramirez told the Washington Blade that a security official told him, “They don’t want booing,” and held him in a separate area until the house lights dimmed before allowing him to return to his seat.
The reception echoed Trump’s June 2025 appearance at the opening night of “Les Misérables” at the same venue, where he was also met with a mix of cheers and protests — and reflected the broader backlash to his takeover of the Kennedy Center, which has prompted a wave of artist cancellations and ongoing legal challenges over both the renaming and the planned closure.
