Donald Trump Takes a Shot At ‘Highly Conflicted’ Judge Deciding The ‘Decrepit’ Kennedy Center’s Fate

(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump remains transfixed on his proposed building project with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was regularly hosting artists and awards shows before he took over as Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Since then, as artists pulled out of performing at the storied theater, Trump announced he was shutting it down due to much-needed renovations, but critics suspected it was because ticket sales plummeted under his watch. Trump also barged ahead and added his name to the front of the building, which violated federal law, according to a U.S. District Judge. Rather than remove his name, Trump had a tarp constructed in June to block the sign from view, which has remained in place ever since.

Proving that the project is still very much on his mind, Trump posted to Truth Social Sunday, “Kennedy Center is an old and decrepit building that is badly in need of a major construction and public relations fix before it can attain greatness and prestige, perhaps far greater than ever before.”

“It has been losing a fortune for many years, and will continue to do so if the highly conflicted judge on the case doesn’t allow us to do what has to be done!” Trump wrote.

Last Thursday, an emergency court hearing was held to about re-adding the president’s name to the building after a federal judge ruled in May that only Congress can rename the institution. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) is holding fast in seeking to block Trump’s name from appearing near that of assassinated President John F. Kennedy’s, for whom the building was built beginning in 1964.

In filings ahead of the hearing, Justice Department lawyers argued that blocking Trump’s $250 million renovation could leave the building so unsafe that it would have to be demolished altogether.

Outside the hearing, Beatty called Trump’s plans to renovate and rename the Kennedy Center “very childish.”

“We’ve seen what he’s done, in the most embarrassing ways, to the White House,” she said. “So that’s another reason that we will continue to fight, because the American people are on our side.”

Trump’s allies are hoping to add the inscription, “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump,” on the building to get around Congressional approval.

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