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By now everyone knows Look-At-Me Donny has his name plastered on the Kennedy Center for the Arts. But what most don’t know is the backstory.

 

First, the Kennedy Center is not a building named for an assassinated President. No, the Kennedy Center is THE memorial to JFK. Like the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial are the designated memorials to commemorate our third and 16th presidents. So it’s not just another in the endless buildings or just some institution that Trump is screwing with.

 

Second, no public money was used in constructing the Kennedy Center. None.  Jackie Kennedy privately raised all of the money that made it possible to build the Kennedy Center. She also privately raised enough to give her late husband’s memorial a large enough philanthropic endowment to begin delivering on its mission. Back when we had bada$$ First Ladies instead of photo-op First Ladies.

 

Third, by law only Congress can name national memorials and only Congress can approve of renaming an established national memorial. Not Trump or his kangaroo court of a board.

 

Fourth, the proclaimed “unanimous” vote was, shocker, rigged. How? Load up the board with cult-worshippers like JD’s wife, Mitch McConnell’s wife, Laura Ingraham, and Pam Bondi; have the vote by conference call where all non-Trumpers are muted; and then game the tech to only allow Trump-loyalists’ votes to be recorded. And yes, all of that happened.

 

Fifth, the entire mission of the Kennedy Center is to promote the arts. When was the last time you saw Trump admiring a piece of art? When was the last time you heard about Trump buying art? (Hint: it can’t include his own self-portraits.) Trump isn’t just someone who has little-to-no interest in art; he goes out of his way to destroy it. For cringeworthy reading, look up what he did to the irreplaceable Art Deco bas-reliefs on the Bonwit Teller department store which the Metropolitan Museum of Art had personally asked him to salvage.

 

Trump may be able, for now, to keep his name on the Center with the spineless Congress we have. But once he leaves, it’ll be gone. Removing the stench of this rotting regime will be more difficult.

 

(The first photo is the WH press release where I’ve circled everything that is verifiably untrue.)

Select each picture to enlarge.