Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
With most of the Trump vanity projects, he is clearly the driving force. He's the one who wants the new ballroom. He's the one who wants the Arc de Trump. He's the one who wanted his name on the airport. But sometimes, it's at least possible that it's really the work of the sycophants who are trying to kiss up, and maybe to earn a promotion. In those cases, we try to keep in mind that while Trump might not be saying "No!" (which he can certainly do), he might not be the one saying "Yes, yes, yes." The Kennedy Center renaming was one such case... until yesterday.
The Kennedy Center board, which Trump has stacked with as many sycophants as is possible, has been pushing very hard to put the President's name on the venue, in one way or another. Yesterday morning, they lost yet again. Judge Christopher Cooper, of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a ruling that the board cannot put Trump's name on the building in any way unless Congress approves. That's not going to happen, since such a bill would be filibusterable. And so, Cooper's ruling leaves only: (1) an appeal to the D.C. Court of Appeals, or (2) an appeal to the Supreme Court. It's plausible that neither appeal, if attempted, would be granted. And even if they were, the law establishing the Kennedy Center is clear: It's to be named for John F. Kennedy, and not anyone else.
The Board, and Trump, both presumably knew this was coming. The former had scheduled a meeting to discuss next steps. The latter called into that meeting, and threw a giant temper tantrum. In particular, he screamed at Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who is one of the few non-flunkies on the board, by virtue of being an ex officio member. And note that, as a sidebar, the kind of performance Trump put on yesterday would be a potentially excludable offense in virtually any other workplace, as employers take a dim view of creating a hostile workplace environment. In any event, after Trump finished his screaming fit and hung up, the board voted to shutter the Kennedy Center for "renovations," which may "begin" as soon as today.
Shortly after the vote, Trump was on his stolen-glory social media platform to express his pique:
The Board of The Kennedy Center today agreed, almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction. The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board's approved name. If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place. The attorneys from the DOJ will ask for an expedited appeal. In the meantime, 17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
We see no other way to interpret these events, other than "Trump gave the board marching orders, and they followed them to the letter."
It's not easy to discern from Trump's rambling tweet, but there's a certain logic here that is designed to keep this from being out and out racketeering. The idea is that the Kennedy Center is losing money hand over fist, and the only way to reverse that is to put Trump's name on the building, or else it won't be possible to keep the doors open. This is, of course, absurd—if the Kennedy Center really is in financial trouble, the problem started when Trump put his name on the building, and both artists and performers began jumping ship in droves. Indeed, quite a few people have noticed what niece-of-JFK Kerry Kennedy has noticed: We have yet another case here of Donald Trump putting his name on the building, and bankruptcy following soon thereafter.
In any case, a judge can tell the administration what NOT to do here, but it's a little less plausible for judges' orders to go in the opposite direction. That is to say, the judges can keep Trump from putting his name on the building, or maybe from tearing part of it down. But they can't really tell Trump to offer [X] programming, or to book [Y] guests. So, if the President and his acolytes decide they're going to shut the Kennedy Center down as part of the ongoing temper tantrum, that might not be a reversible choice while he's still in office. What Trump doesn't think about, or maybe doesn't care about, is that once things return to normal, there are going to be a couple of years' worth of blockbuster shows that will implicitly—or possibly even explicitly—be a celebration of Trump being out of power. And he won't be able to do anything about it. (Z)