May 29, 2026
BREAKING: Judge Orders Trump’s Name Removed From Kennedy Center; Blocks Closure
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RSS Feed A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration, ordering officials to remove Trump’s name from the building within two weeks. The administration must also get rid of all online references to the “Trump Kennedy Center.” The judge also ruled that while the center may move ahead with renovations, it must later decide whether or not to close down the center after the board “more fully considered the impact.”
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Folks, it's Friday, Friday, May twenty ninth, and if we get ready to start our weekend a breaking story that the Kennedy Center. It's once again the Kennedy Center, after a judge just shocked us all and rule not only that it can't be renamed the Trump Kennedy Center, his name needs to come off and soon that welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robe that's said, once again, it's the Kennedy Center. This judge just ruled it was never the Trump Kennedy Center.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Actually, uh yes, one of my favorite lines in the whole thing. That and this judge wrote a lot and we'll get into everything he's seen ninety faux pages, but my favorite sentence was Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name and only Congress can change it.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: He could have left it there. He explained a lot more. But Roades, that's the bottom line of this ruling. I don't know a lot of people Rose when this happened, were saying, yeah, this is going to take a lawsuit. Of course, this is illegal. But for whatever reason, I just kind of huh brushed it off. I didn't see this coming, Robes. This is hilarious.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: Well, what's hilarious is what is going to happen now, because not only did the judge say that Trump's name has to come down off of the Kennedy Center facade, he actually gave a deadline two weeks. You got two weeks to take your damn name off the building, Roabe.
00:01:28
Speaker 1: The only way that could have been better is if he would have said, I want it off tomorrow, because that's how long it took you to put it up.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: I mean, was it even a full twenty four hours from when his self appointed board unanimously said he should put his name up on it? Like the gilded letters were already ready to go, and a construction crew was at the ready.
00:01:50
Speaker 1: Here's thing, Ropes. I remember specifically when that happened.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: That day.
00:01:53
Speaker 1: We were watching it live. They had a live camera and a construction guy out there putting up Trump's name, and you, you had a field day with this. You said, how the hell they have? Of course they were ready to do this. They've been ready. You had to order that lettering and that font and that color a long time ago.
00:02:11
Speaker 2: He wasn't waiting to see if the board was going to unanimously allow him to do. So there's a reason why he hand picked the board, because they were going to do whatever he told them to do. And so yes, he had full confidence that his name was going right up on that building immediately, and he was prepared.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: And I brought that up Roles because the judge actually made the point. This is one of those things where you feel validated. But the judge had the same point to make. He called BS on so much of the argument that the defendant being the Kennedy sentator the president. They he spanked them essentially for some of their BS arguments, including pointing out this wasn't some quick we didn't see out of nowhere, and the President didn't have anything to do with this, and this wasn't planned, and that did I know the let robes it was the next morning, even it wasn't even later in the afternoon.
00:03:08
Speaker 2: They didn't even pretend to act surprised or pretend to act as though, well, now that we've gotten approval, will take the next steps. They were all ready like, you can't get a subcontractor out to do anything unless you schedule them three months in advance. You can't call I don't care who you are getting workers to show up is half the battle. He had those people's schedules and ready to go with everything they needed, and he probably had extras just in case something went wrong.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: It was hilarious at the time. But the judge, we're gonna give you some excerpts because again it was a There were a couple of companion rulings, but it was a bunch of pages. The main one having to do with the name was ninety four pages long against several groups of preservation group as well as a woman who used to be on the board Congress from Joyce Baty, the Democrat from Ohio. She was part of lawsuit as well, but she used to be a member of the Kennedy Center board, so she brought this lawsuit forward. Ropes. There's a bunch of stuff, but there is a bottom line, and we want you to hear what the judge himself wrote. It ISAs is a lot of it's kind of plane speak and ites. I'm just saying as a layperson, its just it's almost common sense the way he's talking.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yes, he said in some the court rules, plaintiff, which is the Congress, Yes, is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from effectuating the formal renaming of the Kennedy Center in honor of President Trump unless they received Congress's approval to do so, and because the defendants are currently in violation of Congress's express statutory direction, the court will order that they remove President Trump's name from the institution's title, as represented on the facade of the center or any other physical or digital signage and official materials.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: Take it off the website, take it down everywhere roades. Wow, the President's having an embarrassing week.
00:05:17
Speaker 2: He certainly is. And I can hear the champagne corks popping on the other side of the aisle. Because this was infuriating, absolutely infuriating, not only to people who love that center, but to the Kennedy family themselves, Maria Shriver wrote a facerrating op ed about why this was so offensive to her family and to the legacy of John F. Kennedy. This is a living memorial, and it has been likened to scratching out or at least writing someone else's name above the person who died on their tombstone. It's literally like putting graffiti on a tombstone.
00:05:55
Speaker 1: You're not going too far in what you're saying, if he wanted to rename the Lincoln Memorial the Trump Lincoln Memorial, people might raise a different eyebrow because it's seen, but this is the equivalent and Robes. I'd be honest, I don't often see it that way because it is a working functioning. It's a living memorial to a deceased person. But because we have shows in there and concerts, I don't know, I don't think of it the same. But Robes it is designated as the exact same thing.
00:06:23
Speaker 2: And I actually learned that because, yes, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Memorial, we understand just the solemnity almost that you feel when you walk into, or see or are around those structures. It does feel more of a memorial site. Where the Kennedy Center, Yes, you are going on to a stage and you're viewing the arts, but that was a part of the honor that they gave President Kennedy by having this. I like it being a living, breathable, interactive memorial, so to speak, but it's still a memorial.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: The Trump Washington Monument, I mean.
00:06:59
Speaker 2: Trump King, we're getting an arc to Trump. Can he just leave it at that?
00:07:03
Speaker 1: Has his he will have his thing, but I did learn something throughout, So the judge here continues, he gets onto the board at one point, we're gonna let you hear that, and he did. Rose He essentially called bs on a lot of the arguments here. But the other point, this next excerpt here is the one that includes or it ends with the line that you really.
00:07:23
Speaker 2: Love Yes, he says. The court has concluded that the board overstepped its statutory bonds by unit bounds. Excuse me, by unilattery. Renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump in nineteen sixty four, Congress deliberately re christened the National Cultural Center the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The text, structure, and evolution of the organic statute makes the institution's name abundantly clear. Congress likewise took pains to ensure that no other memorial like dedication would grace the center's public spaces. As a result, the Kennedy Center Board's decision to rename the center, along with its decision to affix President Trump's name to the building's facade, violate Congress's unequivocal mandate. As stated at the outset here, it is Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: That is plain as day. And that's what everybody said in the very beginning. How did I kind of remember actually grows. How did they justify how did they push back against that idea? You know what they thought? Just the board had the power.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: Yes, the board had the power. They could make the decision. And I'm sure if President Trump could replace every member of Congress of someone who he'd like in there, he could get Congress to do what he wanted to as well. That's a little bit of a taller order. He is working on it. He is working on it, but it was much easier and quicker to go ahead and do that with the Kennedy Center board first.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: And a reminder, this board is full of his people. So in what February February last year, he fired the whole board, He appointed a whole new crew that then made him the chairman of the board. Did they not, So it's full of his own people. And what they did with them, they took the ability away from a several of the members to have a voting say, essentially made anybody who was on the team who wasn't really in his camp powerless in their vote and powerless in their powder.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: And baby, he is trying to do that in Congress too, and we're seeing him be effective at it. And if that isn't alarming to anyone. And again, this isn't about someone's politics. It's about power and the abuse of it. And that's what this judge is checking.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is has nothing to do with the policy. It has nothing.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: This is going to be clear. This isn't about Republicans or Democrats. This isn't about policy. This is about abuse of power. Man.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: But I brought it the board for a reason. Robes, he I call it. It's a very gentle spanking. But it was a reminder to the board robes of their duty and their responsibility. And it's not just to be loyal to the guy who appointed you. I thought this was pretty.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: Good, yes, he said. Inclosing, the Court recognizes that there is a long standing and bipartisan Washington d c. Tradition of appointing political supporters and personal acquaintances to public boards and commissions. These appointees should ideally have some subject matter expertise, but for better or worse, it is often neither required nor demanded. For that reason and others rooted in the Common Laws general endorsement of judicial deference to reasonably wielded trustee discretion. Board members are entitled to rely on committee staff, legal counsel, and other experts to inform their decision making. But while public board service may be an honor, board members are not mere figureheads. They are still duty bound to fulfill their roles with due care and some modicum of independence. The tenant holds especially true for board members tasked by Congress with managing property held in trust for the enjoyment of the American people. That was very politically correct.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: And how he says that was well said. He could have come down a lot harder. But Robes, what a nice reminder there. I thought that was kind way in Robes in a lot of ways. Yes, you give your friends jobs. People do that all the time. It feels a little different that Trump's not just giving jobs to friends. He's given them to people that are fiercely loyal. Well, there are strings attached, Yeah, and I know that there's some understanding of that. If you appoint somebody it's a friend or whatever it's been going on historically, and maybe you do expect maybe they'll do you a solid or something, or maybe you feel a little.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: But is that how we consider judges in this in this country too, though, And that's kind of where we're getting and going. That's the concerning part about it, from Supreme Court justices all the way down to any appointed judge position. This is the concern at the end of all of these articles, Babe the judge who made this ruling today, At the end of every article I read, they made a point to say that this judge, Judge Cooper, Christopher Cooper, I believe is his name, was appointed by Barack Obama.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: I want us to stop that practice. I guess journalists and news outlets are maybe covering themselves in some way or feel like you have to do that because you're balancing something. But that's us conceding that we don't believe our judiciary correct, fair and impartial.
00:12:37
Speaker 2: Correct that is, by the mirror, need to do that. We are now implying that this judge is ironically, given what he is ruling and what he is saying, that he is somehow loyal to Baraca By.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: That, he said, every outlet's doing.
00:12:51
Speaker 2: I've seen everywhere I've seen CNN, AP so I'm not talking. These aren't like right leaning papers. No, these are absolute main stream in what I believe President Trump would call the left of center media.
00:13:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really, we've talked about it. I hate hate that because now the judiciary is political. Now there's no so I can't get a fair shake.
00:13:16
Speaker 2: I think most people believe that's true.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: Oh okay, So if I end up in drap In federal court somewhere, I need to find a black judge, a black judge who is also what maybe a Democrat, maybe from the South. Maybe I need to find somebody who has some political leaning that I think works for me. I hate we do that. Let's stop that. Let's stop putting the judges who appointed them in there. We are perpetuating this idea of Robes as media that there is something partisan about the decision. And they're probably some people saying, well, yeah, duh TJ. But that's the thing. Then what do we trust? What do we have faith in? I gotta put faith in something. Robes and somebody up there with a black robe on I will continue to do so.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: That's what we're supposed to arety supposed to believe.
00:14:01
Speaker 1: Stay here, though, folks, the judge also brought up another very interesting point is the lads excerpt we're going to read for you, and this one is about calling the administration on the idea that now the Trump Kennedy Center is just a nickname.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: Stay there, Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where a judge has just shocked well a lot of us, certainly the two of us this afternoon by ruling that the Trump Kennedy Center is not going to be that anymore. In fact, the judge gave the Trump administration two weeks to take his name off the front of that center and to take it out of every publication online, any letterhead or business cards or whatever they have had made up with Trump and Kennedy's name on it, saying that only Congress can change the name of the Kennedy.
00:15:08
Speaker 1: Which is what everybody was screaming at the very beginning. And again, a lot of people hear this, and some political folks and pimous of Congress, and certainly legal folks will look at this and go, well, yeah, it's plain as day. Well it was plain as day before. I guess we just needed a lawsuit.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: That does tend to be the way things get changed. Or at least it's the way we go about trying to right or wrong.
00:15:32
Speaker 1: Okay, so well, I guess the most glaring example, and he brought it up the Department of War. He actually mentioned it at some point and making a comparison to what one of the arguments was for the Defense being the administration and the Kennedy Center. And he said, you're playing cute with these names, he said, the Department of Defense. Still you can call it Department of War you want, he said, but that ain't got nothing to do with nothing when it comes to this, And he made a whole robes This might be my favorite of the excerpts. Again, it's a ninety four page ruling and there's another seventy two page one that a company. It's a lot of reading.
00:16:11
Speaker 2: I kept coming in. You kept reading and reading and reading, trying to find the best experts excerpts. I have to give you credit. You were. Your nose was in this whole yeah filing.
00:16:21
Speaker 1: I was stressing a little bit because I thought it was gonna be a quick thing. And I said, damn, this.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: Is a long This is a long, long ruling.
00:16:27
Speaker 1: But this one is interesting. You have to skip over ropes and how I put it in here. It has some stuff in parentheses and whatnot. You'll be able to figure.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: I'll do my best. Yes, okay, I see what you did. So, the judge wrote, defendants, Wait, I already cause it that.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: The Trump Kennedy Center. They're supposing that the Trump Kennedy Center is merely a secondary name. That convenient reframing is too cute by half and belied by the record. He called it cute, too cute. He said, it's too cute.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: That's a little patronizing.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: I don't don't mind it. According to the White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, as the judge is writing here, the board formally voted he put that in quotation to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center on December eighteenth, twenty twenty five. The next day, President Trump's name was affixed to the front of the main Kennedy Center building, above President Kennedy's taboots. The taboot is I love that? Okay?
00:17:24
Speaker 2: There little personality coming in from the judge there.
00:17:26
Speaker 1: The joint name has since been featured on the center's official website, email, communications, letterhead, and logo. The center even filed a trademark application. With the institution's new name and logo, These official changes reflect far more than innocuous nicknaming. The re christening is not, as defendants suggests, like calling the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is merely a clerical rearrangement. Nor is it akin to calling the Federal National Mortgage Association Fanny May, which, as even the defendants admit, is simply a play on the pronunciation of its acronym. Rogues. He said, y'all, is this a joke.
00:18:11
Speaker 2: They're trying to act like it's just a nickname. It's just a new way of saying the same thing. No, it's not. And I do appreciate the fact that the judge made note that he had his name up on that wall the next day, and also made note that he put it on top of John F.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: Kennedy's name, Trump Kennedys.
00:18:30
Speaker 2: I think that was really I appreciate the fact that the judge included both of those facts, which do matter.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: Okay, and we have to mane. We haven't even mentioned this, but there's a part of this whole two companion rulings, and they're very long, but one of them had to do with the construction one of the lawsuits. Right, they're going to shut it down, he said for two years.
00:18:49
Speaker 2: Right, And he said, look from what I read, tell me if you read something differently. The judge ruled that while the renovations can continue, you cannot close the center. You need to actually take a moment and reevaluate and reassess what closing the center would mean and do to the community. So he basically put a pause on their decision to close because what was the date they were closing. They had a specific date in July, did they not.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he's saying robes, Now, that was one he was clear on. He said, look, I'm not telling you you can't do this stuff later. I'm telling you got to stop now and go through the proper process.
00:19:26
Speaker 2: Correct.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: He said, there's been no public engagement having gone through. He even got onto them, y'all just got to work. Y'all haven't even had enough time to properly review something you're trying to do to this institution. We have robes, this is, this is. We couldn't believe it at the time. We keep saying, right, he does something else, and he does something else, and we go wow, wow, wow, to the point we don't get shocked anymore. This is robes. I don't know how it's going to be received, but this is a reasonable, legal, absolutely SmackDown of something we all saw and knew was wrong.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And look, time is of the essence. And part of what the plaintiffs were saying was that look what he did to the Rose Garden already, Look what he did to the East Wing already. Like if we don't stop him now, the whole thing's going to get like who knows, demolished, and they're going to start from scratch. And look, I do think it was July when they were expecting to close the doors because Bill Maher is expected to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June twenty eighth, and that was supposed to be perhaps the big final event at the Kennedy Center before it closed. So that's kind of the last slated event before the Trump administration said bye bye for two years. And this judge is saying, nah, hold.
00:20:42
Speaker 1: Up, so what's gonna happen to the Kennedy Center? Now? Can you believe this isman died in nineteen sixty three and.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Leave it to Trump.
00:20:51
Speaker 1: We're doing this to him right now, folks, Friday. It's a Friday afternoon, late afternoon, and we usually check out by now, rogues, we don't. Something has to really rise to the level to get us back in from You're.
00:21:05
Speaker 2: Like, babe, you got to see what this judge just wrote.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: You know, I thought he was going to be that somebody else that Vanilla Ice dropped out of the Freedom to fifty concert. Yeah, that's what.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: I'm altill waiting on that. Maybe you still got the weekend, so.
00:21:17
Speaker 1: We still got Floorida and Vanilla Ice. That's a hell of a concert.
00:21:20
Speaker 2: I'll go to that and Millie or Vanilli, I don't remember which one.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: Fab what was fab the dark?
00:21:27
Speaker 2: You got a fifty to fifty Oh my god, you got a fifty to fifty chance on that.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Bye, folks. And meanwhile, by the way, all this is going on, the President's been in the situation room for the past several hours. Say, he's trying to make a decision on what to do with the deal with Ron and with that, folks, we appreciate you spending some time with us of this a week. We will be talking to you very very soon. Yes, this weekend before my dear Amy Robot. I'm TJ Holmes
Speaker 1: Folks, it's Friday, Friday, May twenty ninth, and if we get ready to start our weekend a breaking story that the Kennedy Center. It's once again the Kennedy Center, after a judge just shocked us all and rule not only that it can't be renamed the Trump Kennedy Center, his name needs to come off and soon that welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robe that's said, once again, it's the Kennedy Center. This judge just ruled it was never the Trump Kennedy Center.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Actually, uh yes, one of my favorite lines in the whole thing. That and this judge wrote a lot and we'll get into everything he's seen ninety faux pages, but my favorite sentence was Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name and only Congress can change it.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: He could have left it there. He explained a lot more. But Roades, that's the bottom line of this ruling. I don't know a lot of people Rose when this happened, were saying, yeah, this is going to take a lawsuit. Of course, this is illegal. But for whatever reason, I just kind of huh brushed it off. I didn't see this coming, Robes. This is hilarious.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: Well, what's hilarious is what is going to happen now, because not only did the judge say that Trump's name has to come down off of the Kennedy Center facade, he actually gave a deadline two weeks. You got two weeks to take your damn name off the building, Roabe.
00:01:28
Speaker 1: The only way that could have been better is if he would have said, I want it off tomorrow, because that's how long it took you to put it up.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: I mean, was it even a full twenty four hours from when his self appointed board unanimously said he should put his name up on it? Like the gilded letters were already ready to go, and a construction crew was at the ready.
00:01:50
Speaker 1: Here's thing, Ropes. I remember specifically when that happened.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: That day.
00:01:53
Speaker 1: We were watching it live. They had a live camera and a construction guy out there putting up Trump's name, and you, you had a field day with this. You said, how the hell they have? Of course they were ready to do this. They've been ready. You had to order that lettering and that font and that color a long time ago.
00:02:11
Speaker 2: He wasn't waiting to see if the board was going to unanimously allow him to do. So there's a reason why he hand picked the board, because they were going to do whatever he told them to do. And so yes, he had full confidence that his name was going right up on that building immediately, and he was prepared.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: And I brought that up Roles because the judge actually made the point. This is one of those things where you feel validated. But the judge had the same point to make. He called BS on so much of the argument that the defendant being the Kennedy sentator the president. They he spanked them essentially for some of their BS arguments, including pointing out this wasn't some quick we didn't see out of nowhere, and the President didn't have anything to do with this, and this wasn't planned, and that did I know the let robes it was the next morning, even it wasn't even later in the afternoon.
00:03:08
Speaker 2: They didn't even pretend to act surprised or pretend to act as though, well, now that we've gotten approval, will take the next steps. They were all ready like, you can't get a subcontractor out to do anything unless you schedule them three months in advance. You can't call I don't care who you are getting workers to show up is half the battle. He had those people's schedules and ready to go with everything they needed, and he probably had extras just in case something went wrong.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: It was hilarious at the time. But the judge, we're gonna give you some excerpts because again it was a There were a couple of companion rulings, but it was a bunch of pages. The main one having to do with the name was ninety four pages long against several groups of preservation group as well as a woman who used to be on the board Congress from Joyce Baty, the Democrat from Ohio. She was part of lawsuit as well, but she used to be a member of the Kennedy Center board, so she brought this lawsuit forward. Ropes. There's a bunch of stuff, but there is a bottom line, and we want you to hear what the judge himself wrote. It ISAs is a lot of it's kind of plane speak and ites. I'm just saying as a layperson, its just it's almost common sense the way he's talking.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yes, he said in some the court rules, plaintiff, which is the Congress, Yes, is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from effectuating the formal renaming of the Kennedy Center in honor of President Trump unless they received Congress's approval to do so, and because the defendants are currently in violation of Congress's express statutory direction, the court will order that they remove President Trump's name from the institution's title, as represented on the facade of the center or any other physical or digital signage and official materials.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: Take it off the website, take it down everywhere roades. Wow, the President's having an embarrassing week.
00:05:17
Speaker 2: He certainly is. And I can hear the champagne corks popping on the other side of the aisle. Because this was infuriating, absolutely infuriating, not only to people who love that center, but to the Kennedy family themselves, Maria Shriver wrote a facerrating op ed about why this was so offensive to her family and to the legacy of John F. Kennedy. This is a living memorial, and it has been likened to scratching out or at least writing someone else's name above the person who died on their tombstone. It's literally like putting graffiti on a tombstone.
00:05:55
Speaker 1: You're not going too far in what you're saying, if he wanted to rename the Lincoln Memorial the Trump Lincoln Memorial, people might raise a different eyebrow because it's seen, but this is the equivalent and Robes. I'd be honest, I don't often see it that way because it is a working functioning. It's a living memorial to a deceased person. But because we have shows in there and concerts, I don't know, I don't think of it the same. But Robes it is designated as the exact same thing.
00:06:23
Speaker 2: And I actually learned that because, yes, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Memorial, we understand just the solemnity almost that you feel when you walk into, or see or are around those structures. It does feel more of a memorial site. Where the Kennedy Center, Yes, you are going on to a stage and you're viewing the arts, but that was a part of the honor that they gave President Kennedy by having this. I like it being a living, breathable, interactive memorial, so to speak, but it's still a memorial.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: The Trump Washington Monument, I mean.
00:06:59
Speaker 2: Trump King, we're getting an arc to Trump. Can he just leave it at that?
00:07:03
Speaker 1: Has his he will have his thing, but I did learn something throughout, So the judge here continues, he gets onto the board at one point, we're gonna let you hear that, and he did. Rose He essentially called bs on a lot of the arguments here. But the other point, this next excerpt here is the one that includes or it ends with the line that you really.
00:07:23
Speaker 2: Love Yes, he says. The court has concluded that the board overstepped its statutory bonds by unit bounds. Excuse me, by unilattery. Renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump in nineteen sixty four, Congress deliberately re christened the National Cultural Center the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The text, structure, and evolution of the organic statute makes the institution's name abundantly clear. Congress likewise took pains to ensure that no other memorial like dedication would grace the center's public spaces. As a result, the Kennedy Center Board's decision to rename the center, along with its decision to affix President Trump's name to the building's facade, violate Congress's unequivocal mandate. As stated at the outset here, it is Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: That is plain as day. And that's what everybody said in the very beginning. How did I kind of remember actually grows. How did they justify how did they push back against that idea? You know what they thought? Just the board had the power.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: Yes, the board had the power. They could make the decision. And I'm sure if President Trump could replace every member of Congress of someone who he'd like in there, he could get Congress to do what he wanted to as well. That's a little bit of a taller order. He is working on it. He is working on it, but it was much easier and quicker to go ahead and do that with the Kennedy Center board first.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: And a reminder, this board is full of his people. So in what February February last year, he fired the whole board, He appointed a whole new crew that then made him the chairman of the board. Did they not, So it's full of his own people. And what they did with them, they took the ability away from a several of the members to have a voting say, essentially made anybody who was on the team who wasn't really in his camp powerless in their vote and powerless in their powder.
00:09:23
Speaker 2: And baby, he is trying to do that in Congress too, and we're seeing him be effective at it. And if that isn't alarming to anyone. And again, this isn't about someone's politics. It's about power and the abuse of it. And that's what this judge is checking.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is has nothing to do with the policy. It has nothing.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: This is going to be clear. This isn't about Republicans or Democrats. This isn't about policy. This is about abuse of power. Man.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: But I brought it the board for a reason. Robes, he I call it. It's a very gentle spanking. But it was a reminder to the board robes of their duty and their responsibility. And it's not just to be loyal to the guy who appointed you. I thought this was pretty.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: Good, yes, he said. Inclosing, the Court recognizes that there is a long standing and bipartisan Washington d c. Tradition of appointing political supporters and personal acquaintances to public boards and commissions. These appointees should ideally have some subject matter expertise, but for better or worse, it is often neither required nor demanded. For that reason and others rooted in the Common Laws general endorsement of judicial deference to reasonably wielded trustee discretion. Board members are entitled to rely on committee staff, legal counsel, and other experts to inform their decision making. But while public board service may be an honor, board members are not mere figureheads. They are still duty bound to fulfill their roles with due care and some modicum of independence. The tenant holds especially true for board members tasked by Congress with managing property held in trust for the enjoyment of the American people. That was very politically correct.
00:11:17
Speaker 1: And how he says that was well said. He could have come down a lot harder. But Robes, what a nice reminder there. I thought that was kind way in Robes in a lot of ways. Yes, you give your friends jobs. People do that all the time. It feels a little different that Trump's not just giving jobs to friends. He's given them to people that are fiercely loyal. Well, there are strings attached, Yeah, and I know that there's some understanding of that. If you appoint somebody it's a friend or whatever it's been going on historically, and maybe you do expect maybe they'll do you a solid or something, or maybe you feel a little.
00:11:54
Speaker 2: But is that how we consider judges in this in this country too, though, And that's kind of where we're getting and going. That's the concerning part about it, from Supreme Court justices all the way down to any appointed judge position. This is the concern at the end of all of these articles, Babe the judge who made this ruling today, At the end of every article I read, they made a point to say that this judge, Judge Cooper, Christopher Cooper, I believe is his name, was appointed by Barack Obama.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: I want us to stop that practice. I guess journalists and news outlets are maybe covering themselves in some way or feel like you have to do that because you're balancing something. But that's us conceding that we don't believe our judiciary correct, fair and impartial.
00:12:37
Speaker 2: Correct that is, by the mirror, need to do that. We are now implying that this judge is ironically, given what he is ruling and what he is saying, that he is somehow loyal to Baraca By.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: That, he said, every outlet's doing.
00:12:51
Speaker 2: I've seen everywhere I've seen CNN, AP so I'm not talking. These aren't like right leaning papers. No, these are absolute main stream in what I believe President Trump would call the left of center media.
00:13:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really, we've talked about it. I hate hate that because now the judiciary is political. Now there's no so I can't get a fair shake.
00:13:16
Speaker 2: I think most people believe that's true.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: Oh okay, So if I end up in drap In federal court somewhere, I need to find a black judge, a black judge who is also what maybe a Democrat, maybe from the South. Maybe I need to find somebody who has some political leaning that I think works for me. I hate we do that. Let's stop that. Let's stop putting the judges who appointed them in there. We are perpetuating this idea of Robes as media that there is something partisan about the decision. And they're probably some people saying, well, yeah, duh TJ. But that's the thing. Then what do we trust? What do we have faith in? I gotta put faith in something. Robes and somebody up there with a black robe on I will continue to do so.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: That's what we're supposed to arety supposed to believe.
00:14:01
Speaker 1: Stay here, though, folks, the judge also brought up another very interesting point is the lads excerpt we're going to read for you, and this one is about calling the administration on the idea that now the Trump Kennedy Center is just a nickname.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: Stay there, Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where a judge has just shocked well a lot of us, certainly the two of us this afternoon by ruling that the Trump Kennedy Center is not going to be that anymore. In fact, the judge gave the Trump administration two weeks to take his name off the front of that center and to take it out of every publication online, any letterhead or business cards or whatever they have had made up with Trump and Kennedy's name on it, saying that only Congress can change the name of the Kennedy.
00:15:08
Speaker 1: Which is what everybody was screaming at the very beginning. And again, a lot of people hear this, and some political folks and pimous of Congress, and certainly legal folks will look at this and go, well, yeah, it's plain as day. Well it was plain as day before. I guess we just needed a lawsuit.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: That does tend to be the way things get changed. Or at least it's the way we go about trying to right or wrong.
00:15:32
Speaker 1: Okay, so well, I guess the most glaring example, and he brought it up the Department of War. He actually mentioned it at some point and making a comparison to what one of the arguments was for the Defense being the administration and the Kennedy Center. And he said, you're playing cute with these names, he said, the Department of Defense. Still you can call it Department of War you want, he said, but that ain't got nothing to do with nothing when it comes to this, And he made a whole robes This might be my favorite of the excerpts. Again, it's a ninety four page ruling and there's another seventy two page one that a company. It's a lot of reading.
00:16:11
Speaker 2: I kept coming in. You kept reading and reading and reading, trying to find the best experts excerpts. I have to give you credit. You were. Your nose was in this whole yeah filing.
00:16:21
Speaker 1: I was stressing a little bit because I thought it was gonna be a quick thing. And I said, damn, this.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: Is a long This is a long, long ruling.
00:16:27
Speaker 1: But this one is interesting. You have to skip over ropes and how I put it in here. It has some stuff in parentheses and whatnot. You'll be able to figure.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: I'll do my best. Yes, okay, I see what you did. So, the judge wrote, defendants, Wait, I already cause it that.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: The Trump Kennedy Center. They're supposing that the Trump Kennedy Center is merely a secondary name. That convenient reframing is too cute by half and belied by the record. He called it cute, too cute. He said, it's too cute.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: That's a little patronizing.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: I don't don't mind it. According to the White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, as the judge is writing here, the board formally voted he put that in quotation to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center on December eighteenth, twenty twenty five. The next day, President Trump's name was affixed to the front of the main Kennedy Center building, above President Kennedy's taboots. The taboot is I love that? Okay?
00:17:24
Speaker 2: There little personality coming in from the judge there.
00:17:26
Speaker 1: The joint name has since been featured on the center's official website, email, communications, letterhead, and logo. The center even filed a trademark application. With the institution's new name and logo, These official changes reflect far more than innocuous nicknaming. The re christening is not, as defendants suggests, like calling the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is merely a clerical rearrangement. Nor is it akin to calling the Federal National Mortgage Association Fanny May, which, as even the defendants admit, is simply a play on the pronunciation of its acronym. Rogues. He said, y'all, is this a joke.
00:18:11
Speaker 2: They're trying to act like it's just a nickname. It's just a new way of saying the same thing. No, it's not. And I do appreciate the fact that the judge made note that he had his name up on that wall the next day, and also made note that he put it on top of John F.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: Kennedy's name, Trump Kennedys.
00:18:30
Speaker 2: I think that was really I appreciate the fact that the judge included both of those facts, which do matter.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: Okay, and we have to mane. We haven't even mentioned this, but there's a part of this whole two companion rulings, and they're very long, but one of them had to do with the construction one of the lawsuits. Right, they're going to shut it down, he said for two years.
00:18:49
Speaker 2: Right, And he said, look from what I read, tell me if you read something differently. The judge ruled that while the renovations can continue, you cannot close the center. You need to actually take a moment and reevaluate and reassess what closing the center would mean and do to the community. So he basically put a pause on their decision to close because what was the date they were closing. They had a specific date in July, did they not.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he's saying robes, Now, that was one he was clear on. He said, look, I'm not telling you you can't do this stuff later. I'm telling you got to stop now and go through the proper process.
00:19:26
Speaker 2: Correct.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: He said, there's been no public engagement having gone through. He even got onto them, y'all just got to work. Y'all haven't even had enough time to properly review something you're trying to do to this institution. We have robes, this is, this is. We couldn't believe it at the time. We keep saying, right, he does something else, and he does something else, and we go wow, wow, wow, to the point we don't get shocked anymore. This is robes. I don't know how it's going to be received, but this is a reasonable, legal, absolutely SmackDown of something we all saw and knew was wrong.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And look, time is of the essence. And part of what the plaintiffs were saying was that look what he did to the Rose Garden already, Look what he did to the East Wing already. Like if we don't stop him now, the whole thing's going to get like who knows, demolished, and they're going to start from scratch. And look, I do think it was July when they were expecting to close the doors because Bill Maher is expected to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June twenty eighth, and that was supposed to be perhaps the big final event at the Kennedy Center before it closed. So that's kind of the last slated event before the Trump administration said bye bye for two years. And this judge is saying, nah, hold.
00:20:42
Speaker 1: Up, so what's gonna happen to the Kennedy Center? Now? Can you believe this isman died in nineteen sixty three and.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Leave it to Trump.
00:20:51
Speaker 1: We're doing this to him right now, folks, Friday. It's a Friday afternoon, late afternoon, and we usually check out by now, rogues, we don't. Something has to really rise to the level to get us back in from You're.
00:21:05
Speaker 2: Like, babe, you got to see what this judge just wrote.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: You know, I thought he was going to be that somebody else that Vanilla Ice dropped out of the Freedom to fifty concert. Yeah, that's what.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: I'm altill waiting on that. Maybe you still got the weekend, so.
00:21:17
Speaker 1: We still got Floorida and Vanilla Ice. That's a hell of a concert.
00:21:20
Speaker 2: I'll go to that and Millie or Vanilli, I don't remember which one.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: Fab what was fab the dark?
00:21:27
Speaker 2: You got a fifty to fifty Oh my god, you got a fifty to fifty chance on that.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Bye, folks. And meanwhile, by the way, all this is going on, the President's been in the situation room for the past several hours. Say, he's trying to make a decision on what to do with the deal with Ron and with that, folks, we appreciate you spending some time with us of this a week. We will be talking to you very very soon. Yes, this weekend before my dear Amy Robot. I'm TJ Holmes