'Juvenile': Trump aide rages that voters don't care about his name on things

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Paris Orly airport, following the G7 Summit, in Orly, France, June 17, 2026.

President Donald Trump’s dogged insistence to put his name on a memorial built to honor a different president appears more and more difficult to defend. One by one, even Trump’s own strategists and Republican allies are warning him to surrender what looks like a “juvenile” crusade.

Trump’s own strategist, David Urban, was no less judgmental while speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday night.

“Right. There's no way to defend the Kennedy Center piece or some of these other moves,” said Urban, who worked for Trump in his first term. “The president needs to pivot from what he's doing and get back to talking about what people around the kitchen table care about. I guarantee you, nobody in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, gives one hoot about the Kennedy Center, either way.”

“They care about gas prices. They care about what that $20 bill in their pocket does for them when they go to the grocery store, or when they go to the pump,” Urban continued. “And the president needs to tell them what he's going to do to make their life better and make that $20 go a little bit further.”

Urban found himself in unfamiliar territory: agreeing with Democratic Strategist Meghan Hays.

“You heard the president say that if the Trump administration doesn't get recognition for the Kennedy Center it’s going to end up being ripped down. Given all the other problems he's facing, does it make any sense to you that he is still fighting this?” Cooper asked Hays.

“No, his priorities are completely misaligned, but I think it's because he knows that he's made some really dumb mistakes when it comes to the economy with the Iran war and tariffs. And he doesn't know how to pivot out of it. So, he's being focused on all these vanity projects,” said Hays. “But what David said: the American people don't care about that. They care about their gas prices and their cost of groceries and how much they're paying for health care and child care. They could care less if their reflecting pool has water in it, or if there's a ballroom at the White House, or if the Kennedy center has his name on it. They literally just want some relief.”

Democratic strategist David Axelrod disagreed with Hays’ argument that Trump’s focus on the wrong priorities is a “pivot.”

“I disagree with Meghan a little. I don't think he's talking about those things to pivot away from the economy. He's interested in vanity projects because it may be because of vanity,” said Axelrod. “… [H]e wants to put his name on things. He can legitimately put his name on the highest diesel prices in history, because he does own that.”

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