President Donald Trump lashed out at a federal judge on Friday and appeared to give up on his Kennedy Center takeover after suffering a humiliating defeat in court.
In a sprawling, 582-word Truth Social rant, the 79-year-old president suggested he no longer wanted anything to do with the institution after a judge blocked his effort to rename it after himself and halted plans to shut it down for renovations.
“Based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center… we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them,” Trump wrote.
The outburst came hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center’s board lacked the authority to rename the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote in his 94-page decision.
Trump blasted the Obama-appointed judge, accusing him of putting the public at risk by refusing to allow the center to close for renovations.
The president claimed experts had warned of “rotting beams,” parking areas “subject to collapse,” and other alleged safety hazards at the building.
“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself!” Trump wrote.
The president also complained that Cooper had effectively overturned a unanimous vote by the Kennedy Center’s board to add the “TRUMP” name to the venue.
However, the vote to rename the venue after the current president came after Trump had purged the Kennedy Center’s leadership and filled the board with loyalists, who then elected him chairman and approved the rebranding effort.
Trump seized control of the institution in February, removing multiple Biden-appointed board members and installing allies, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo.
“I took great pride in taking over a losing Institution,” Trump said, insisting he had hoped to transform it into “the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World.”
“Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of,” he wrote.
The president then appeared to concede that his effort to remake the institution was effectively over.
“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump wrote.
He ended the post by announcing that he had instructed the Department of Commerce to begin arrangements with Congress for a “full and complete transfer” of responsibility for the Kennedy Center.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Kennedy Center for comment.
Trump’s complaints found support from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who blasted the ruling as a “judicial power grab.”
“I can’t believe a federal judge would deny President Trump—working with the Trump Kennedy Center Board—the ability to close the center for renovations,” Graham wrote on X.
The South Carolina Republican added that he would be “honored” to help move the renovation plans forward and said he supported attaching Trump’s name to the center because he had done more than any president since the center’s founding to “renovate it, protect it, and have it flourish.”
However, the ruling was welcomed by Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, whose lawsuit challenged Trump’s takeover of the institution.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement.
“The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity.”
The decision was also celebrated by members of the Kennedy family, including Maria Shriver, who called it “an appropriate birthday present” for her uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, whose birthday fell on Friday.
“I know they’ll probably appeal and the story isn’t over, but for today let’s celebrate a great birthday gift,” Shriver wrote on X.
