'Infantile' Trump just proved how he returns a favor

On Thursday, a new twist in President Donald Trump’s quest to rename the Kennedy Center after himself proved, yet again, that anyone thinking of doing him any favors should think twice. This is according to Lawfare senior editor Roger Parloff, who took to social media to post updates and his thoughts on the matter.

Parloff started by sharing a new report detailing the latest turn of events. Per the New York Times, “The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to inscribe President Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order. According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: ‘Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.’ The board’s decision, which directs officials to act by ‘all legal means,’ came shortly after it voted to move forward with Mr. Trump’s plan to shutter the building for renovations.”

Trump’s name was added to the building last year, but a judge ordered it taken down, finding that only Congress had the authority to change the institution’s name. His name was removed, but Trump is appealing. In the meantime, the building has been conspicuously covered by a massive tarp. While many took issue with the tarp, a judge allowed it to remain.

Parloff pointed to this as an example of how Trump repays favors, writing, “Judge Cooper treated Trump with kid-gloves, letting him keep his infantile tarp up for 2 months after the deadline to take his name off the facade. And then Trump & his DOJ just thumb their noses at him.”

This is part of a long list of examples of Trump’s readiness to betray a favor. He’s turned on longtime allies, like Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene, for extending the slightest criticism. His former National Security Advisor John Bolton went from a close insider to critic to having his home raided by the FBI. Trump left his former President Mike Pence dangling when his life was threatened during the January 6 insurrection. And most recently, he declared that his US Attorney Jeanine Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” after she was forced to admit that the Reflecting Pool prosecution Trump demanded was baseless.

The latest effort to shape the Kennedy Center into one of his vanity projects isn’t limited to the building. According to Parloff, “In addition to trying to re-scrawl his name on the Kennedy Center facade,” the board voted “to rename the physical site ‘the President Donald J. Trump Plaza.’” The board was appointed by Trump at the beginning of his second term, and immediately voted him its chairman.

Commenting on Chairman Trump’s latest effort, policy analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick suggested that the Kennedy Center Board was “exploring levels of sycophancy never before seen outside of North Korea or Stalin-era Soviet Russia.”