In the latest episode in President Donald Trump’s second-term vanity project spree, he has received yet another “humiliating courtroom defeat” as a federal appeals court has slapped down his attempt to keep his name on the Kennedy Center.
The White House had appealed a judge’s order to remove Trump’s name from the Center, and as the Daily Beast explains, “In its second rejection of the administration’s request, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Trump’s lawyers had failed to prove that removing his name would damage fundraising efforts at the iconic performing arts venue, which has faced declining ticket sales and widespread artist cancellations since Trump initiated a MAGA takeover last year.”
Trump’s lawyers argued that removing his name from the building would cause “irreparable harm” to fundraising, but the judge wasn’t buying it. According to the circuit court ruling, the defendants “failed to support this assertion with any specific facts or evidence,” offering “only the conclusory assertions of the Kennedy Center’s Executive Director that were made in a factually unsupported declaration.” The court also didn’t accept a separate argument “that the Kennedy Center could be forced to refund donations if Trump’s name was not restored, noting that the claim had never been presented to the lower court.”
The initial legal challenge was brought by Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio trustee of the Kennedy Center, which is formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. She celebrated the appeals court ruling, saying, “Today’s ruling again affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful. His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people. Now it is time for the Trump administration to accept this, comply with the law, and take the tarps down,” referring to tarps and scaffolding installed shortly before Trump’s name was due to be removed.
While Trump’s name has been struck from the building, these construction materials have obstructed the change ever since. According to the Daily Beast, “Judge Casey Cooper has directed the Kennedy Center to justify why its exterior signage remains hidden behind tarps and scaffolding.”
The Kennedy Center renaming ordeal has been one of many Trump projects aimed at leaving his permanent mark on the nation’s capital. These have included everything from his controversial 250-foot-tall arch project, to his much-demanded White House ballroom, to his much-publicized Reflecting Pool debacle, and more.
Judge Cooper had ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center in May, arguing that he had failed to seek congressional approval for the change: an accusation that has plagued many of his efforts. As Cooper wrote at the time, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”