president Donald Trump On Saturday, a federal judge said Stopped his renovation Kennedy Center is ‘anti-Trump hater’ and predicts he wants to become America’s premier performing arts center Closed for two-year overhaul “It will close soon and may never open again.”
In a lengthy post on his Truth social platform, Trump expressed anger at Friday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who also ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the center. Clearly angry about his latest legal setback, he said “there’s no way I’m going to be treated fairly” and linked Cooper’s ruling to previous losses, including the Supreme Court’s rejection of him in February. comprehensive tariff.
His post was intended to defend the project but did not clarify whether he would continue to defend it in court. Cooper’s decision came hours after Trump said he would abandon renovations and make arrangements to hand over control of what was known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts before the Republican president’s second term to Congress.
The White House did not immediately clarify his position or say whether he would remain chairman of the center’s board of directors.
Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics lawyer involved in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s plans for the Kennedy Center, said Trump’s earlier posts about withdrawing from the center gave hope to artists alienated by his takeover.
“I’ve heard from artists and audiences who are excited about the Kennedy Center returning to a nonpartisan normalcy,” Eisen told The Associated Press in a text message Saturday. “It’s early days, but when the court’s order is enforced, including Trump’s name coming off the building and the board of directors complying with the law, I’m optimistic the center will begin its long journey back.”
Trump quotes judge’s wife
Trump said without providing evidence that Cooper’s wife, attorney Amy Jeffries, was partially responsible for the ruling. The president noted that Jeffries, a partner at law firm Herc Fink, is a former federal prosecutor who served as an adviser to Attorney General Eric Holder during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. Cooper was nominated to the bench by Obama.
Trump also noted that Huck Fink is suing the Justice Department on behalf of former President Joe Biden. prevent release Audio and transcripts of Democrats’ interviews with ghostwriters obtained as part of an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents while he was a senator and vice president.
Trump claimed that the Kennedy Center, named after the late Democratic president and opened in 1971, was “rusty, rotten, infested with rats and bugs” and that “the new building will be unparalleled.”
In his ruling, Cooper said the Center Council’s March 16 vote to close the venue was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” and failed to take into account its legal obligations. The government announced the work would begin in July and last about two years. Cooper’s ruling temporarily halts those plans.
The judge also found that the committee “exceeded its statutory scope” by adding Trump’s name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center the name, and only Congress can change it, he said. Cooper ordered Trump’s name be removed within two weeks.
President defends adding name to center
Trump said Saturday that the board, not him, added Trump’s name to the center. “They thought it would be good for the dying institution,” he wrote.
Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board of directors who appointed him chairman.
Cooper held a hearing in late April on a parallel lawsuit against the project. A group of cultural and historic preservation groups filed a lawsuit. The other was introduced by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who serves as an ex-officio member of the board through her position in Congress. He ruled in favor of Beatty’s request but rejected other challenges.
Trump also noted in the post that Jeffries’ company representatives E. Jean CarrollCarroll, a longtime advice columnist, was awarded $5 million in 2023 on sexual abuse and defamation charges after a jury found Trump sexually abused her in a New York department store dressing room in 1996. In 2024, another jury awarded Carroll an additional $83 million in damages for defamation. Both rulings are being appealed.
Jeffries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
