Trump’s reason for holding the Kennedy Center hostage doesn’t even make sense

Carlos Barria/Reuters

There is plenty that’s bizarre about President Donald Trump’s attempt to take the Kennedy Center hostage over a judge’s refusal to let him put his name on it. He’s now indicated twice in recent days that he will abandon the center — and even let it be “ripped down” — if the courts don’t change the ruling.

But high on the bizarreness quotient are Trump’s claims that the Kennedy Center needs him. They just don’t make sense.

The administration has made that argument repeatedly, including this summer in court.

“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,” the administration said in a June filing.

It added in another filing last month that not recognizing Trump would mean the Kennedy Center would “ continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral .”

Then Trump indicated he wouldn’t provide the center help if his name wasn’t used.

“For me to get involved and to take that on long-term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it — I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” he told reporters in Charlotte on Wednesday night. “Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”

He also claimed this week that “17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat.”

But Congress last year appropriated $257 million for renovating the building. Trump apparently wants credit for getting Congress to do that — and is trying to hold that funding up to get what he wants. But it’s Congress that put up the money.

It’s also pretty evident that, to the extent the center is in financial trouble, it coincides with Trump’s efforts to take it over.

As recently as September 2024, tax documents showed the Kennedy Center running more than a $41 million surplus — with $307 million in revenue and $266 million in expenses.

Five months later, after Trump was inaugurated for the second time, he replaced the board with loyalists who quickly made him chairman.

And that’s when the center’s financial problems appear to have kicked in. Artists who were supposed to perform canceled. And a Washington Post investigation last month found ticket revenue and fundraising revenue fell sharply. That was especially the case after the board voted in December to put Trump’s name on the building, which the judge later forced to be removed. (A Kennedy Center spokesperson told the Post that the problems stemmed from previous leadership and that Trump’s name actually attracted new donors, resulting in a balanced fiscal 2027 proposed budget.)

But the Post reported that, as of June, the center’s financial projections had it “on track to fall nearly $100 million short of its revenue target.”

That was a very different outlook than the center had as recently as 2024.

It was also very different from what Trump had been saying to that point. In fact, just a few months before the administration sought to use the center’s dire financial straits as a legal reason it needed Trump’s name, the president claimed credit for a huge financial turnaround at the center.

“We have tremendous amounts of money coming in from some people around the table, but also from people that are not here,” Trump said at a lunch with the Kennedy Center board in March.

He added in December: “The building was in such bad shape, both physically and financially in every other way. And now it’s very solid, very strong.”

So Trump appears to have claimed things were great when he wanted credit, and now he’s claiming things are dismal when he needs a reason to put his name on the building.

But the legal argument has fallen completely flat with US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.

Cooper and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals previously said that the administration offered no evidence to back up the assertion that Trump’s name was needed.

Cooper added in his ruling this week said that this question was “beside the point for present purposes.” But he also took time to knock it down.

“In fact, evidence before the Court pointed in the opposite direction: The renaming of the Center coincided with declines in revenue and contributions, as artists cancelled performances, the Washington National Opera ended its 50-year residency, and ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast dropped precipitously,” the judge wrote.

He added: “The Board also has access to the $257 million that Congress appropriated for necessary capital improvements — an outlay that [Commerce] Secretary [Howard] Lutnick indicated at the August 13 meeting President Trump is prepared to use ‘to complete the [renovation] work[.]’”

In other words, Trump isn’t just holding the Kennedy Center hostage for his own glorification; he’s doing so with a bunch of logically and legally incoherent claims.

卡洛斯·巴里亚/路透社

唐纳德·特朗普总统试图以法官拒绝其署名权为由挟持肯尼迪中心，这其中有很多令人匪夷所思之处。最近几天，他两次表示，如果法院不改变裁决，他将放弃该中心，甚至任其“被拆毁”。

但最离奇的莫过于特朗普声称肯尼迪中心需要他。这简直毫无道理可言。

政府曾多次提出这一论点，包括今年夏天在法庭上。

“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，”特朗普政府在6月份提交的文件中表示。

上个月，肯尼迪中心在另一份文件中补充说，不承认特朗普将意味着肯尼迪中心将“继续陷入财务和结构上的死亡螺旋”。

然后特朗普表示，如果不用他的名字，他就不会向该中心提供帮助。

“对我来说，能够参与其中，长期坚持下去，或者筹集资金来维持下去——我认为特朗普政府当然应该得到认可，”他周三晚在夏洛特告诉记者。“坦白说，如果我们不这样做，它就会关闭，最终会被拆除。”

本周他还声称，“特朗普总统筹集的 1700 万美元已存入肯尼迪中心账户，以维持其运营。”

但国会去年拨款2.57亿美元用于翻新这座大楼。特朗普显然想把促成国会拨款的功劳揽到自己身上——并试图扣留这笔资金以达到自己的目的。但实际上，这笔钱是国会拨付的。

很明显，该中心陷入财务困境的程度，与特朗普试图接管该中心的行动不谋而合。

截至 2024 年 9 月，税务文件显示肯尼迪中心盈余超过 4100 万美元——收入为 3.07 亿美元，支出为 2.66 亿美元。

五个月后，特朗普第二次就职后，他用忠于自己的人替换了董事会成员，这些人很快就让他担任了董事长。

而就在那时，肯尼迪中心的财务问题似乎开始显现。原定演出的艺术家纷纷取消了演出。上个月，《华盛顿邮报》的一项调查发现，门票收入和筹款收入均大幅下降。尤其是在董事会于去年12月投票决定将特朗普的名字加在建筑上之后，情况更是如此。后来，法官强制要求移除这一名称。（肯尼迪中心的一位发言人告诉《华盛顿邮报》，这些问题源于之前的领导层，而特朗普的名字实际上吸引了新的捐助者，最终实现了2027财年预算的平衡。）

但《华盛顿邮报》报道称，截至 6 月，该中心的财务预测显示，“其收入目标将比预期少近 1 亿美元”。

这与该中心在 2024 年的看法截然不同。

这与特朗普此前的说法截然不同。事实上，就在几个月前，特朗普政府试图利用该中心严峻的财务困境作为法律依据，要求署上特朗普的名字，而总统还声称该中心的财务状况大幅好转都是他的功劳。

“我们从在座的一些人那里获得了大量的资金，但也从一些不在场的人那里获得了资金，”特朗普在三月份与肯尼迪中心董事会共进午餐时说道。

他在12月补充道：“这栋楼当时状况非常糟糕，无论是建筑本身还是其他方面，都存在严重的财务问题。而现在它非常坚固，非常牢固。”

所以，特朗普似乎在想要邀功时声称情况很好，而现在，当他需要一个理由把自己的名字印在建筑物上时，他又声称情况很糟糕。

但这一法律论点完全无法说服美国地区法官克里斯托弗·R·库珀。

库珀和哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院此前表示，政府没有提供任何证据来支持需要特朗普名字的说法。

库珀在本周的裁决中补充说，这个问题“与当前情况无关”。但他同时也花时间驳斥了这个问题。

“事实上，法庭掌握的证据指向相反的方向：中心更名的同时，收入和捐款也随之下降，艺术家取消了演出，华盛顿国家歌剧院结束了其长达 50 年的驻场演出，肯尼迪中心荣誉奖颁奖典礼的门票销售和收视率也急剧下降，”法官写道。

他还补充道：“董事会还可以动用国会拨款的 2.57 亿美元用于必要的资本改善——商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克在 8 月 13 日的会议上表示，特朗普总统准备用这笔钱‘完成（翻新）工作’。”

换句话说，特朗普不仅为了自我吹捧而挟持肯尼迪中心，他还提出了一系列逻辑和法律上都站不住脚的说法。