When he was running for his first presidential term in 2016, Donald Trump told the nation: “I alone can fix it.”
A decade later, his administration is making a similar pitch to a federal appeals court, proclaiming the president as the only one who can save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from what the Trump-allied center’s board says is certain ruin.
And how can he pull off that feat?
By letting the board recognize him personally at what is, by law, a memorial to Kennedy in the nation’s capital.
“This Court should reverse the district court and allow the Board and President Trump to restore the Kennedy Center to greatness,” Justice Department lawyers told the Washington appeals court Monday after a district judge ruled against them.
The district judge’s orders “preventing the Board from appropriately recognizing President Trump will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to cease,” the DOJ said, touting the president’s “unrivaled expertise and experience in real estate and construction.”
The board “has long recognized that President Trump’s efforts and prestige provide the sole hope for the Center’s financial survival and structural renewal,” the government’s brief said, kicking off appellate litigation that is set to continue through the fall.
Meanwhile, there is parallel litigation in the trial court before the district judge who ruled against the government, Obama appointee Christopher Cooper. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, the board member who successfully sued for the removal of Trump’s name from the center, earlier this month brought to Cooper’s attention that the president was spotted reading a placard that seemed to say “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED” while his allies “appear to be actively considering the demolition of the Center.”
Beatty said the board is using claims about maintenance problems as a pretext to unlawfully shutter the center after being barred from adorning it with Trump’s name.
Cooper said the board must provide written notice more than 30 days prior to implementing any changes to its plans, including any “demolition” of the center’s main building. He ordered a status report from the board that is due Friday.
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