Facing bankruptcy, the Trump Kennedy Center has been closed after a last-ditch effort to obtain funding failed yesterday.
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The center had effectively run out of funds to pay staff or carry out regular maintenance, much less necessary major repairs. The explanation for the shortfall is that the center’s last hope has been insulted, denied, and chased off for petty reasons by the usual suspects. That last hope being Donald Trump, whose connections to large numbers of donors were the only remaining source of possible funds to resurrect the floundering arts center.
Trump had planned a massive revitalization of the center using donor money, much the same as he had with the White House ballroom. Unfortunately, this effort ran into obstacles identical to those encountered by the ballroom project.
Last May, Judge Christopher Cooper, appointed by Obama as district judge for the District of Columbia, ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the center itself, as well as materials both print and electronic, along with forcing the center open as opposed to closing it for necessary repairs. This put the board on a cleft stick, forcing a continued hemorrhaging of funds while preventing any efforts to save the center. It’s difficult to see this decision as anything other than the result of a petty vendetta against the President.
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This past week, the board suggested that Trump’s name be reinstated at the center, which would encourage both Trump and the donors to step in. But early yesterday, Cooper once again moved to block Trump’s name from reappearing in the facade of the center, forcing the board to vote to close in the face of “certain fiscal collapse.” It remains to be seen how the situation can be salvaged. It’s easily possible that a bankruptcy could be forced on the center. It could even turn out that a third-party buyer could move in and purchase the center, though perhaps not as an arts venue. (Maybe a casino would work better.)
This is simply the latest evidence that the NeverTrump brigades, particularly those of the legal establishment, really don’t care about the results of their actions so long as they can get at Trump. Cooper’s contention that congressional action was required to change the name might be legally sound, but certainly some kind of work-around could have been arranged. This happens in courtrooms across the country. The only obstacle that existed was that Donald Trump was involved.
The military has a term for this: it’s called “collateral damage” – the damage and casualties to unrelated structures and individuals as the result of a strike against a legitimate target. The military, at least that of the United States, makes a serious effort to keep such damage to a minimum. The NeverTrumpers, not so much.
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Image: Cs35029