Trump-Aligned Board Threatens to Demolish the Kennedy Center

If the president can’t have it, no one can.

The Trump administration, in its ongoing effort to shatter previous world records for spitefulness, is threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if it is not allowed to put Donald Trump’s name on it.

In a court filing Monday, prosecutors suggested that the proposed $250 million renovation project—which includes tacking the president’s name to the facade of the building—was necessary for the institution’s survival, The New York Times reported.

“Without those efforts, the center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down,” the filing said, “with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

In reality, Trump’s overhaul of the prestigious national theater has only hastened its demise. The Kennedy Center is on track to fall $100 million short of its profit goal, and the shortfall can be directly tied to Trump changing the institution’s name. It expects to miss its budget target by 70 percent and contributed revenue by 25 percent, a projected $23 million deficit.

The Kennedy Center has become an outlet for the Trump administration’s shocking pettiness. The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board first tried to close the center in May, after multiple artists canceled their performances in response to the proposed name change. Democratic Ohio Representative Joyce Beatty successfully challenged the decision in court.

The renovations were blocked by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who argued that the board’s decision was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” Trump’s name was then scraped off the wall, and the building’s facade has remained concealed by a massive tarp.

Earlier this month, the board voted again, this time deciding to close the center for two years so that it can renovate the building in Trump’s image. Now Beatty has asked a federal judge to once again keep Trump’s name off of another man’s memorial.

We’re About to Learn How DOGE Helped ICE Get Taxpayer Data

A federal court has ruled that DOGE must release its internal communications related to a controversial deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security.

A court has ordered the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to disclose to immigrants’ rights groups how involved it was in getting tax and Social Security information shared with the Department of Homeland Security. 

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled Monday that the government has to turn over the records after refusing requests to do so as part of a lawsuit against Trump administration officials, Bloomberg reports. The government has until September 14 to comply with the ruling, Talwani said, adding that its refusal constituted “another significant gap precluding the court from evaluating Plaintiffs’ claims.”

As part of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, DHS and the IRS reached an agreement to share taxpayer information to find undocumented immigrants. Immigration advocacy groups sued to stop the data sharing, and a federal court granted them a preliminary injunction in February limited to the IRS. 

Talwani rejected the government’s claims that it handed over all of the legally required materials to the groups suing it, saying that federal agencies also had to turn over DOGE’s communications, as well as those from inside the Social Security Administration. However, the judge granted the........

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