U.S. President Donald Trump at an observance ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon, in Washington, D.C., September 11, 2026. REUTERS
Either President Donald Trump or someone close to him reportedly ordered workers to put a tarp over the Kennedy Center's name late at night — presumably to salvage the Republican's wounded pride over losing a court battle over whether he can add his name.
"Trump, apparently, could not submit to the public indignity of having his name removed from the building in June," reported The Atlantic's Tom Nichols on Tuesday. "He—or someone seeking to please him—ordered workers to cover the building’s wall with tarps at 3 o’clock in the morning so that no one would see the removal. The tarps remain in place."
Earlier Nichols reported, "The saga of Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to slap his name onto the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will not go away. In May, Trump lost in court and was ordered to remove his name from the building. But now—according to a 57-page presentation by Trump’s hand-picked executive board obtained by The Washington Post—the Kennedy Center is warning that it will likely go bankrupt. Unless, that is, Trump gets to put his name back on the wall next to that of his slain predecessor."
He added that Trump's behavior is "not an offer of help; it’s a shakedown—or, in more direct terms, political blackmail. Two lawyers who have been fighting the Trump administration, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, said in a statement: 'Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way.' The president is counting on the board’s civic spirit and affection for the institution—neither of which he evidently possesses—to strong-arm it into giving him what the law and courts would not allow."
On Monday, Trump's niece — psychiatrist Dr. Mary Trump — pointed out that the president is threatening to punish the United States unless he can get what he wants.
“He's still upset because he had to take his stupid name off the side of the building, and he's going to punish the rest of us simply because he can't get his way,” the younger Trump explained. “That's what this is about, period, end of story.”
As recently as Tuesday, Trump was ordered by the courts — this time Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. — that he could not put his name on the Kennedy Center in any way, shape or form.
“Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Judge Cooper wrote. “The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”
The president continues to be irate at his inability to rename the center after himself.
“One source told me today that the president himself called into the board meeting and yelled at members, including Democratic congresswoman Joyce Beatty, whose lawsuit prevented the president's name from being added to the center's exterior,” CNN anchor Kasie Hunt observed on Tuesday. “Another source telling [us] that the heated exchange between Trump and Beatty was, ‘effing crazy,’ with the president blaming the congresswoman for getting the courts involved, saying she was responsible for the downfall of the Kennedy center, according to a person familiar with the matter.”