Trump’s lawyers yesterday threatened to demolish the Kennedy Center if he is not allowed to close it for two years and renovate it. His “expertise” as a builder makes him uniquely qualified to rebuild the Kennedy Center, his lawyers said.
He forgets that his full-time job is President. He has no time to manage construction, although he is very good at destruction. In New York City, he was never known as a “master builder.” He cut corners. He hired undocumented workers to save money. He stiffed subcontractors.
When he built Trump Tower, he saved money by not installing fire detectors. An apartment owner died a few years ago because he didn’t get out in time no fire detector or smoke alarm). He promised to donate the elegant friezes at the front of Bonwit Teller to the Metropolitan Museum, but he demolished these priceless items because it would cost too much to preserve them.
After he became President in January 2025, Trump has been determined to remake the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts into one of his possessions.
He fired the bipartisan board and replaced it with his trusted associates. His board immediately named him chairman of the board and voted to put his name on the building, which was named in 1964 to honor the memory of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
In response to the addition of Trump’s name, performers and major productions began canceling, the Washington National Opera moved out, and ticket sales sharply declined. The Center’s revenues plummeted.
The board’s response to the wreckage they created was to propose to close the Center for two years for renovations.
Joyce Beatty, a board member and a member of Congress from Ohio, sued to restore the building’s original name and to prevent the board from closing it for two years. She prevailed in court, and a federal judge ordered the board to remove Trump’s name from the building, the website and all other places and to stop plans to close the Center without providing a reasonable explanation.
In court yesterday, the Trump administration’s lawyer said that the President would demolish the building if he was not allowed to close it and renovate it.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will eventually have to be demolished unless President Donald Trump is allowed to save it, Justice Department lawyers representing the center argued in a court filing posted late Monday.
The center, which the lawyers described as “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital,” faces “terminal decline” without Trump’s experience as a real estate developer and fundraising prowess, assistant attorney general Brett Shumate and two other department lawyers wrote.
“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down,” Shumate wrote. It could be replaced by a structure “such as a large outdoor amphitheater,” he added.
Trump is a big baby. If he can’t put his name on the Kennedy memorial, he will tear down the Center altogether, as he tore down the East Wing of the White House without seeking permission to do so. He is determined to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and the board recently voted to try again.
He is a model of stolen honor. The world knows that he is obsessed with Obama and Biden, but neither of them has a monument that Trump can deface. Next best: Put his name on Kennedy’s memorial center. He was admired, revered, and idolized as Trump has never been and never will be. So, of course, Trump has to slap his name on the Kennedy Center.
What else will Trump rename to honor himself? The Lincoln-Trump Memorial? The Washington-Trump Monument?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I worked closely with Head Start in my district. In fact, the Head Start teacher was one of my former bright students when I taught ESL in the district’s high school.
Students that attended Head Start were better socialized than some of our other kindergarten students. They knew how to sit still during group instruction and wait their turn. They could also identify letters, and many of them knew the sounds. None could read independently, but they enjoyed read alouds and were interested in books. While many of them could function socially in English, very few of them had mastered directional and sequence language that is important in following directions. Some of them struggled in mainstream classes, but the most disadvantaged students continued to have the greatest struggle with academics despite having attended Head Start. Head Start plays a significant role in preparing students for the next step in their education. Head Start is a bridge for our neediest students.
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“Trump is a big baby. If he can’t put his name on the Kennedy memorial, he will tear down the Center altogether.”
He really is a spoiled brat who never understood the word ‘No’. If he can’t have it, no one will. He doesn’t like the rules so he will take his toys and go home. The trouble is, he really doesn’t have a home.
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Would someone remind me of how Trump is not deliberately tarnishing all we find important to the preservation of liberty.
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Trump is a human wrecking ball.
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TRUMP IS A PETULANT BABY AND DOESN’T CARE — and now he’s threatening to tear down the Kennedy Center if he isn’t allowed to put his name on it in huge letters, just like some spoiled little brat who kicks down a block castle built by some other kid in daycare because he isn’t allowed to write his name on it.
And this spoiled baby is America’s president.
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What’s next, Trump, DC, the Lincoln-Trump Memorial, or replacing America with Trumplandia, ergo, the UST. Forget about Amerigo Vespucci, that was so yesterday. Rah, rah, rah, UST, UST, UST!
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The only good thing about his naming spreee is that the next President can undo it.
The Trump ballroom, however, will be completed by the time he leaves office. It will be erected at a cost of $700-800 million. He’s betting that no one will tear it own.
How many dinners for 1,000 people is the White House likely to offer in a single year?
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Perhaps the religious right might read its bible and fill the banquet hall:
The Parable of the Great Banquet
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
I’m not holding my breath.
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What else will Trump rename to honor himself? The Lincoln-Trump Memorial? The Washington-Trump Monument?
Given the condition of the reflecting pool (that he ruined), maybe his name can go on that.
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It could be named the Donald J. Trump Algae Pool.
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”Trump DC”
”The United States of Trump”
”North Trumpica “
”The Western Trumpisphere”
”Planet Trump”
”The Trumpy Way”
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On the other hand, don’t give him any ideas about what else to name for himself.
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Trump and Co are the bullies who terrorized us in 7th grade. But things changed once we made some “adjustments”.
Some things never change.
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”Don’t make me shoot this puppy!”
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