A federal judge ruled on Friday that the name “Trump” must come off the Kennedy Center, a memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy, and also temporarily blocked the administration’s closing of the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper.
As anyone would expect, Trump took to Truth Social for a 582-word rant against the Obama-appointed judge, and accused him of putting the public at risk by not allowing his expertise to “fix” everything that was wrong with the Kennedy Center with the Trump special sauce.
What may have been surprising is Trump’s concession, appearing to walk away from the Kennedy Center and announcing he had instructed the Department of Commerce to begin arrangements with Congress for a “full and complete transfer” of responsibility for the Center.
“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump wrote.
Ohio Rep Joyce Beatty, former member of the Center’s board, filed a lawsuit against the administration’s moves and celebrated the decision, saying, “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump.”