U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend "Les Miserables" opening night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
President Donald Trump hurt his own chances at taking over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a legal analyst explained. It's unknown if Trump ever would have been able to turn the monument to the late President John F. Kennedy into a joint monument, but senior counsel Joshua Kolb said it certainly isn't happening now.
This week, a judge shut down Trump's demand to add some kind of tribute to himself at the Kennedy Center, resulting in a presidential "tantrum" with its board, according to the one Democrat left on the board. The board then ordered that the theatre be shut down entirely.
"He went into a tantrum," said Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). "I mean, let me just make it simple. It was the most unprofessional thing that I've ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, 'I think you're incompetent.' And I said, 'I know you're incompetent.'"
Kolb, from the Democracy Defense Fund, told CNN on Wednesday that Trump caused his own problems when he admitted that if he couldn't have his name on the Kennedy Center, he'd shut it down.
"Trump gave the game away," Kolb wrote on BlueSky.
"The judge also said that they actually can't shut down the Kennedy Center," he said. "That will be in violation of the judge's preliminary injunction, and it will be courting contempt. We've already gone to court to enforce the judge's preliminary injunctions. That's the latest victory that we had in court. It's been very clear repeatedly over the course of months that the Kennedy Center cannot be shut down in violation of that court order."
"And President Trump now has sort of given the game away. He tied the two issues together in his Truth Social posts yesterday, where he basically," Kolb said. "And he admitted that if he can't get his way, if he can't get his name on the Kennedy Center in violation of the law, then he will shut the Kennedy Center down in violation of a court order that can't stand."
When asked whether he believes in the claim that the Center is being closed for "safety reasons," Kolb cited comments from Beatty that described a nationwide tradition to do renovations while staying open to keep funding coming in and "the show goes on."