Trump's shakedown of the Kennedy Center is an assault on law
By Ruth Behrens · Reporting from Newell, Iowa ·
There is a kind of arrogance that doesn’t know how to wait for a judge’s signature.
# The Ransom of the Kennedy Center
Arrogance does not know how to wait for a judge’s signature. It is the spirit that tells a man he can move a fence line in the middle of the night and call it "improvement" before the neighbor wakes up. In Washington, that spirit has encircled the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, holding a public landmark hostage over a name.
President Donald Trump and his board of trustees shuttered the facility, claiming the closure is for "renovations." But the President has been plain about the price of the keys: he wants his name on the building. PBS reported that he stated via social media that repairs will not begin until a court rules his name can be included in the official title. It is a shakedown performed with the machinery of the federal government.
A Fence is Not a Repair Plan
Rep. Joyce Beatty, a board member, has sought an emergency hearing to reopen the doors. CNBC reported that Beatty is fighting a closure that began after Judge Christopher Cooper told the board they could not rename the center on a whim. Judge Cooper ruled that because Congress gave the center its name, only Congress can change it.
The board, headed by the President, ignored the ruling and voted to close the doors immediately. They barred the public and locked out Rep. Beatty’s legal team. When a staffer tried to enter Wednesday morning, guards pointed to caution tape and padlocks, claiming the building was closed for "safety reasons." In my part of Iowa, when a man puts up a fence where it doesn't belong, he is usually trying to hide a mistake or steal a few feet of good loam. Here, the theft is different. The board is ignoring a federal judge's authority to keep a public building open.
Is This the New Watergate?
Some call this a dispute over branding or political theater. It is not. This is the same play used during the Watergate scandal. The issue is not a break-in at a hotel, but the core rot: a president using the executive power of his office—and the agencies that serve it, like the Department of Justice—to secure a personal win against the judicial branch.
During Watergate, the crisis centered on the belief that the President stood above the law and could use the state to shield himself. When the DOJ represents a board that openly defies Judge Cooper’s May order to keep the facility open, that pattern returns. It is the belief that a court order is a suggestion for the powerful.
The Ransom Note
The President’s allies claim the center is facing bankrupt coffers. The Washington Post said leaders installed by Trump believe the facility is on the brink of collapse. They argue that the "Trump Kennedy Center Fund" is the only way to raise a hundred million dollars to save the place.
To prove the building is a hazard, they point to a slab of plaster that crashed through the lobby in September. If the building is falling down, you fix it. You do not lock the doors and demand a trophy as a condition for the repair.
Congress has already allocated a quarter-billion dollars for safety repairs. The money is in the accounts; the only thing missing is the humility to spend it without demanding a monument in return. To suggest that a public institution must surrender its identity to the man in charge is not a financial strategy. It is a ransom note.
We have seen this play before. Laura Bligh of "Hands Off the Arts" warned that the administration might use a wrecking ball, noting how the President tore through the walls of the White House East Wing to build a ballroom. The goal is not restoration, but a finished deal. They want to gut the interior so that by the time a judge orders the doors open, there is nothing left to save.
A nation that treats its laws as suggestions and its memorials as billboards has forgotten how to be sovereign. You cannot save an institution by destroying the rules that allow it to exist. If the President wants a building with his name on it, he can build one with his own money, like every other developer in the country. He cannot use the DOJ and a locked gate to force the American people to pay for his vanity.
Sources
- CNBC: Trump's Kennedy Center closure is 'unlawful,' Rep. Beatty tells judge in emergency hearing request
- PBS: Fencing goes up around the main Kennedy Center building after Trump-aligned board votes to close it
- The Washington Post: Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show