The Kennedy Center saga shows how consumed Trump is with his own glorification

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Back in December, President Donald Trump professed to be “ surprised ” that his hand-picked board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had suddenly voted to slap his name alongside Kennedy’s on the building.

Ten months later, Trump’s effort to hold the institution hostage to obtain that goal epitomizes an increasingly bizarre fixation on his own legacy – and one with potential near-term political consequences.

Perhaps better than anything else right now, it demonstrates how consumed Trump is with his own personal glorification, even at the possible expense of his Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.

The progression from December has been a dizzying one.

“The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country,” Trump said back then, before adding: “And I was surprised by it. I was honored by it.”

Left unsaid, of course, was the fact that Trump had replaced the board with a bunch of political allies. That board quickly elected him chair, then he repeatedly joked about calling it the “Trump Kennedy Center.” Trump also happened to call into the meeting where this decision was made.

The move was strange because federal law pretty clearly prohibited it. And sure enough, by late May, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board lacked the authority to do so. He also blocked the administration from closing the building for renovations.

Trump soon signaled he would wash his hands of the matter, suggesting he was being blocked from revitalizing it. He indicated he would turn the Kennedy Center over to Congress, and let lawmakers deal with its financial and other problems.

But then things got weird.

In a court filing seeking to delay the deadline for removing Trump’s name, the administration argued that it needed his name to be on the building for money reasons. (This in spite of the fact that its finances reportedly plummeted in the wake of the name-change attempt.)

“Without the name, ‘Trump’ on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt, but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded, or terminated,” it said.

When that failed, the administration complied with the removal. But it waited to do so under the cover of night, after it had constructed scaffolding and hung tarp to obscure everyone’s view of the embarrassing moment. Then it left the scaffolding and tarp up, apparently so nobody could compare the before and after.

By August, the board came up with a new plan to affix Trump’s name – in case there was any doubt about how big a priority this was.

Rather than rename the entire center, language would be inscribed below the Kennedy Center’s sign saying the complex was, “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board also moved to name the surrounding plaza in Trump’s honor.

Trump ‘threw a tantrum’ during Kennedy Center call, Joyce Beatty says

Then it argued in another court filing that, without recognizing Trump, the building would “continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral.”

“The Trump Administration, and President Donald J. Trump, should, therefore, be given the respect and dignity of acknowledgement,” it said.

Cooper has now again rejected this idea – but not before the administration floated even more desperate arguments.

In documents distributed ahead of a meeting on Tuesday, the board was scheduled to consider a pair of resolutions. One of them flatly claimed that not only were Trump and his name needed to save the Kennedy Center, but that the name was necessary to convince Trump to help with renovations .

“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” said one of the draft resolutions.

And in case there was any doubt, after the judge ruled against the administration on Tuesday, Trump just came out and said it. He said pretty flatly that he would only help if he got the recognition he clearly yearned for.

Trump said on social media that renovations “cannot begin until such time as the DC Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name.”

“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the US Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” Trump said.

Trump also called into a meeting of the board on Tuesday to berate a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the panel, CNN reported.

That congresswoman, Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night that Trump “wanted to blame me if someone died” because of the state of the Kennedy Center.

We’ve come a long way. Trump once claimed he was surprised that the board voted to put his name on the building. Now, he’s explicitly holding the Kennedy Center hostage until it goes back on the building.

It’s pretty evident that this is a massive priority of Trump’s, and he’ll do virtually anything to get his name affixed to the Kennedy Center – even if it looks increasingly desperate and even if it’s likely destined to be a rather temporary move if it did somehow pass legal muster. Surely, the next Democratic president would seek to have it taken down.

And just to underscore, this is an apparent political albatross. A Pew Research Center poll in April found just 9% of Americans said it was acceptable to name government buildings after Trump while he is still in office. A recent CNN poll showed Americans said by a nearly 2-to-1 margin that Trump’s efforts to change institutions like the Kennedy Center went “too far.”

Trump has made it abundantly clear that he’s focused on these perceived legacy items much more so than voters’ top priority, affordability .

And seeing the Kennedy Center situation devolve into an increasingly transparent debacle that’s all about Trump getting his name on it drives home where Trump’s political priorities are – in case there was any doubt.

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去年 12 月，唐纳德·特朗普总统声称，他“惊讶地”看到他亲自挑选的约翰·F·肯尼迪表演艺术中心董事会突然投票决定将他的名字与肯尼迪的名字一起印在建筑物上。

十个月后，特朗普试图挟持司法系统以达到其目的，这体现了他越来越执着于自身政治遗产的怪异倾向——而且这种倾向可能会在短期内产生政治后果。

或许比现在任何其他事情都更能说明，特朗普是多么沉迷于自我吹捧，甚至不惜牺牲共和党在即将到来的中期选举中的利益。

自去年12月以来，事态发展令人眼花缭乱。

“董事会成员都是非常杰出的人物，是全国最杰出的人士，”特朗普当时说道，然后补充道：“我对此感到惊讶，也感到荣幸。”

当然，未言明的是，特朗普已经用一群政治盟友替换了董事会成员。这些新成员很快选举他担任主席，之后他又反复开玩笑说要把这个机构叫做“特朗普肯尼迪中心”。巧合的是，特朗普还亲自打电话参加了做出这项决定的会议。

此举十分蹊跷，因为联邦法律明确禁止这样做。果不其然，到了五月下旬，美国地区法官克里斯托弗·库珀裁定董事会无权这样做。他还阻止了校方关闭大楼进行翻修。

特朗普很快表示他将对此事置之不理，暗示他重振肯尼迪中心的努力受到了阻碍。他表示会将肯尼迪中心的管理权移交给国会，让议员们来处理其财务和其他问题。

但后来事情变得很奇怪。

在提交给法院的一份文件中，特朗普政府试图推迟移除大楼上特朗普名字的最后期限。政府辩称，出于财政原因，需要保留大楼上特朗普的名字。（尽管据报道，在试图更改大楼名称之后，政府的财政状况急剧恶化。）

“如果大楼上没有‘特朗普’的名字，我们的筹款活动不仅会停止，而且所有筹集或承诺的资金都将被迫退还、退款或终止，”声明中写道。

当之前的办法行不通后，校方同意拆除。但他们选择在夜幕掩护下进行，事先搭建了脚手架，挂上了防水布，以遮挡这尴尬的一幕。拆除后，他们又让脚手架和防水布保留了下来，显然是为了避免有人对比拆除前后的景象。

到了八月份，董事会想出了一个新方案，要把特朗普的名字贴上去——以防有人怀疑这件事的优先级有多高。

与其重新命名整个中心，不如在肯尼迪中心的标志下方刻上文字，说明该建筑群“由唐纳德·J·特朗普总统修复和翻新”。委员会还提议将周围的广场以特朗普的名字命名。

乔伊斯·比蒂称，特朗普在肯尼迪中心电话会议上“大发脾气”。

然后，该公司在另一份法庭文件中辩称，如果不承认特朗普，该建筑将“继续陷入财务和结构上的死亡螺旋”。

“因此，应该给予特朗普政府和唐纳德·J·特朗普总统应有的尊重和尊严，”声明中写道。

库珀再次否决了这一想法——但在此之前，政府提出了更加绝望的论点。

在周二会议召开前分发的文件中，董事会计划审议两项决议。其中一项决议直言不讳地声称，不仅需要特朗普及其名字来拯救肯尼迪中心，而且需要特朗普的名字才能说服他帮助进行翻修。

其中一份决议草案称：“董事会认为，如果没有这种适当的认可，特朗普总统不太可能对主楼的翻新工程进行根本性的监督，也不太可能领导中心的财政救援。”

如果还有人对此抱有疑问，那么在法官周二做出对政府不利的裁决后，特朗普就直接表态了。他直截了当地表示，只有得到他渴望已久的认可，他才会提供帮助。

特朗普在社交媒体上表示，翻修工程“只有在哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院对董事会批准的名称作出裁决后才能开始”。

特朗普说：“如果裁决是负面的（虽然不应该如此），并且没有被美国最高法院推翻，那么肯尼迪中心的重建和翻新工程将无法进行。”

据 CNN 报道，特朗普周二还致电该委员会会议，斥责了一位在该委员会任职的民主党女议员。

俄亥俄州众议员乔伊斯·比蒂周二晚告诉 CNN 的凯特兰·柯林斯，由于肯尼迪中心的状况，特朗普“想把有人死亡的责任推到我身上”。

我们已经走了很远。特朗普曾声称，他对董事会投票决定将他的名字刻在肯尼迪中心大楼上感到惊讶。现在，他却公然挟持肯尼迪中心，直到大楼恢复原状。

很明显，这是特朗普的头等大事，他几乎会不惜一切代价将自己的名字与肯尼迪中心联系起来——即便这种做法看起来越来越不择手段，即便即便侥幸通过法律程序，也可能只是权宜之计。可以肯定的是，下一任民主党总统一定会想方设法将其移除。

需要强调的是，这显然是一个政治包袱。皮尤研究中心四月份的一项民调显示，只有9%的美国人认为在特朗普仍在任期间以他的名字命名政府建筑是可以接受的。而CNN最近的一项民调显示，近2比1的美国人认为，特朗普试图改变肯尼迪中心等机构的做法“太过分了”。

特朗普已经非常明确地表示，他更关注这些被认为是政治遗产的项目，而不是选民最关心的可负担性。

而肯尼迪中心事件逐渐演变成一场越来越明显的闹剧，其目的完全是为了让特朗普的名字出现在中心上，这更加凸显了特朗普的政治优先事项——如果之前还有任何疑问的话。