Trump Loses It at Judge in Unhinged Kennedy Center Meltdown

JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump has unleashed on the Kennedy Center and the judge presiding over a legal battle over the use of the president’s name on the building.

Trump, 80, has become fixated on the once-prestigious arts venue, which opened in 1971 as a living memorial to slain president John F.

Kennedy.

In May, U.S.

District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump’s name be removed from the outside of the venue, noting that only Congress could approve a change to the Kennedy Center’s name.

On Aug.

13, the MAGA-aligned board of the venue voted to add “Restored and Renovated By President Donald J.

Trump” beneath the center’s name.

Additionally, a second inscription, “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” would also be added if it could raise $100 million.

Rep.

Joyce Beatty, the lone Kennedy Center board member fighting Trump’s changes, filed an emergency motion accusing her colleagues of undertaking a “breathtaking assault on the rule of law.” The Democrat is an ex officio member representing Congress on the board, which is made up of members appointed by the president and ex officio members who are designated federal and local government officials to provide public oversight.

An emergency court hearing last Thursday saw the Trump administration argue to get Trump’s name back on the D.C. icon.

Judge Cooper, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014, presided over the two-hour hearing, where he heard arguments for both sides but did not make a ruling, according to the Washington Post .

The report added that the judge “pressed” Kennedy Center lawyers to explain the trustees’ reasons for restoring Trump’s name to the building.