My gratitude for today is that the Kleptocrat’s name has been removed from the Kennedy Center—including from the wall of the building itself.
A federal judge, Christopher Cooper, ruled last month, in a
suit brought by ex-officio Kennedy Center board member, Rep. Joyce Beatty
(D-OH), that the center was given its name by Congress and only Congress can
change the name. (It was his handpicked stooge board that renamed the center in
December. A day later, he declared himself surprised, even as workers installed
the clearly planned letters on the wall.) He set 2359 on Friday as the deadline
for the name being off everything—the website, marketing materials, employee email
signature blocks and the building. The Kleptocrat’s KC stooges dithered around
for a couple of weeks, then filed a motion to stay, which the judge denied.
So I joined tens of thousands of online viewers Friday, (as well as scores on site) watching as workers erected scaffolding for the deed.
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| Credit: Rahmat Gul, AP |
There
was a break late afternoon as a storm moved through the city, right around the
time the stooges filed an appeal, claiming for the first time that amended
center bylaws now state that the center only receives funds if the Kleptocrat’s
name remains; if it’s ever removed, the money stops.
Well, that didn’t hold, but they still missed the midnight
deadline. So they filed another motion requesting a 24-hour stay, because the
dog ate their homework. The judge granted them until noon on Saturday to get ‘er
done.
Around 0330, the workers completed the scaffolding, but then spent time pulling up gigantic tarps to completely shield them from view.
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| Credit: Tasos Katopodis, Getty |
Word
on the street is that the delay to the wee small hours, and the tarps, were
solely to spare the Kleptocrat the humiliation of having the world rejoice at
seeing his name come off, letter by letter. But Cliff Owen of AP got this shot
of the P popping out:
And Joyce Beatty stayed throughout the night to witness.
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| Credit: Cliff Owen, AP |
The tarps are still up. It’s more than possible that the
Kleptocrat is hoping for more court filings to overturn the decision—that it’ll
go to SCOTUS, and they may find some way to twist “Congress gave it the name,
only Congress can change the name” into “yeah, it’s okay.” And, of course,
there was the birthday circus yesterday at the Building Formerly Known as The
White House.
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| Credit: Alex Wrobiewski, AFP via Getty |
UPDATE: Per @MusicologyDuck on Bluesky, those door-like indentations have been formalized:
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| Credit: Musicology Duck |
But for now, I’m grateful for Rep. Beatty, for Judge Cooper, for those workers (who I hope got overtime for working through the night), for everyone involved in this exquisite rebuke to the Kleptocrat’s imperial ambitions. And on his birthday weekend.
Many happy returns.
©2026 Bas Bleu
1 comment:
Shame they can't charge Trump the costs off illegally adding and then removing his name. Presumably that will fall on the Arts Centre itself leaving less funds for the arts.
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