Oh come ON.
“The Trump Kennedy Center?” As one of my Trump Deranged friends posted on Facebook, quite appropriately, “What’s next, The Trump Washington Monument? The Trump Lincoln Memorial? The Trump Jefferson Memorial…?”
I don’t even want to think about what’s next. Ugh. Ack. Yecchh.
You would think that after his Rob Reiner fiasco, the President would be just a teeny-weeny bit wary for a while. Clearly not.
If President Trump had any sense at all, he would thank the board but turn down the wildly inappropriate honor. But he doesn’t have any sense at all, not in these kinds of things.
I am aghast.
Ethics Alarms 
And–not only is it dictatorial, unAmerican, impressively stupid…it’s also most likely illegal. Congress named the damn place (renamed it, actually) after JFK’s assassination. He’s not a goddamn king. He can’t just name shit, or get his ass licking sycophants to name them for him. So…a cash strapped, premier arts organization is going to have to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, defending this illegal move in court. All for one very very very tiny person’s massive ego.
But this is like picking up a snake, and being surprised it bites you.
When he slapped his name on the Peace Institute, it was equally illegal, abnormal, and inappropriate. When he had huge banners of his face on government buildings, it was very Hitler or Hoxha or Kim Il Sung. The only thing that surprises me is that, so far, there’s no actual corruption involved in his takeover of the Kennedy Center. Usually, when Trump does stuff like this, he, his family, his organization, or a wealthy campaign donor benefit. But give him time–I can see the Trump-Kennedy Center Crypto coins! One side JFK, the other DJT! Available now, operators standing by!
I’m old enough to remember when Republicans seriously worried that Obama was too beloved, that he was creating a cult of personality….but the WH has almost never had a more modest and respectful occupant. Think of all the ways in which Obama respected the office–when he gave presidential speeches from the WH, he didn’t excoriate his political enemies. He didn’t post childish attacks on his predecessors, or put slurs under their portraits. He was a gentleman. This guy is a no class dumbass with the ethics of a mobster, and the attention span of a housefly with a bladder infection.
Congratulations.
It’s a minor point and not relevant to the larger one, but can the KC board change the name of the thing? Usually boards have that power, but I haven’t seen the organizing documents and the bylaws. I would argue that the name change is plainly against the interests of the organization, and thus a breach of fiduciary duty. BOY I could run a great website if I had some interns, a staff and a budget. It would also ne nice if I could fly by flapping my arms real hard…
I’ve long said “Trump is his own worst enemy”….and it always comes back to his amazingly asinine ego. All the goodwill he’s earned through the much-needed policy corrections he’s made can be undone in a nano second by putting his name on everything from watches to National Park passes, to cultural venues. NONE of those self-serving moves improve the lives of the people he claims to care about…they just highlight his own insecurities. Where are the sane family members or advisors to firmly shout, ENOUGH!! STOP IT!”
The Trump model has always been to slap his name on something — he is basically a branding guy. So this seems completely “on-brand” so to speak.
The only thing that’s a little different from some of the other Trump ventures is that the Kennedy center is not a second or third rate operation — but those “in charge” are working hard to correct this to align better with the sort of quality we expect of Trump Steaks, Trump University (okay, that was well below third rate), Trump Golden Sneakers (yeah, ditto I guess) etc.
Next initiative: Bring back the $1000 bill, with Trump’s face on it! It could be backed with Trump Crypto coins (gold, of course!).
As someone who has attempted to defend some of Trump’s more moderate positions, i feel personally slapped in the face.
This Kennedy Center crap, and the Reiner comments, for me, comes on top of my company not being able to hire an immigrant because Trump raised the application fee for a work visa to $100,000 per employee.
$100,000 dollars.
It is pretty hard to defend against the claim “Trump is anti-immigration” when he pulls stuff like that. The fee apparently can be waived if “there is no American who can do the job”. If there were an American who could do the job, we’d hire both, because there is a critical shortage of qualified people. Yet this grand standing jerk-in-chief screwed over our our potential employee. How can you trust a ‘waiver’ process for a policy so poorly thought out and deliberately provocative?