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No event at the Kennedy Center in recent months has generated as much anticipation in Washington as the removal of President Trump’s name from the building’s facade. The date and time of the show have not yet been made public, but residents and the media are on the lookout to watch crews remove the letters that were hastily added in December, when the institution was ungrammatically rechristened, “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Center.”
Already, like my colleague Janay Kingsberry reported last week, Trump’s name has been removed from the center’s website, as well as from “email signatures, email communications, e-mails, websites, brochures, promotional materials, press releases, signs, references in contracts, MOUs and other agreements.” These are signs of a center moving to follow a the judge’s decision at the end of last month which ordered it to return to its legal name.
The renaming is a welcome victory for the rule of law, but the dangerous road ahead for the Kennedy Center is an important metaphor for America in the Trump era at large. Removing Trump’s name is the easy part—the only step a judge can order outright—but repairing the damage will be a much longer and more difficult process, assuming it’s possible at all.
Trump is still in charge of the Kennedy Center, which means he can continue to wreak havoc, but he has also threatened to simply walk away, which would leave the center hollow and rudderless. Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the center’s board was not given enough information to approve the two-year closure announced in March, but, he added“This court should not substitute its judgment for the Board as to whether temporary but long-term closure is a good idea, all things considered. The court has no position on that question.” And as Kingsberry has reported, there is not much of the Kennedy Center left to keep open. The leadership established by Trump-the president deleted half of the board, replaced it with followers, and appointed himself the chairman; many employees quit or were fired—it drove away artists and attendees, and left the station without a scheduled program.
When the Kennedy Center was dedicated, in 1971, speakers presented it as a symbol of the nation. His current problems may be an example for the nation as well. Even a hypothetical future president who respects the rule of law and the separation of powers will have a hard time fixing what’s broken. Such a president can eliminate the Ultimate Fighting Championship arena from the White House lawn or even to demolish the hall intended by Trumpconsidering that it is being built. But something will need to fill the hole in the ground where the old East Wing used to sit. Most importantly, the president will need to reform what is happening inside the White House, the West Wing, and the executive office buildings by re-creating the National Security Council, taking over. member hacksand redesigning the agency’s policy-making process. The damage is not very noticeable and is not easily reversed.
At the Pentagon, restoring the Defense Department’s legal name would be easier, and it would take Trump’s name from the “Trump class” warship, a large nuclear warship he proposed last year. But replacing the ammunition used in Trump’s unauthorized and aimless war in Iran will not happen. A pipeline of promising officers who had the misfortune to be women or non-white at the time serving under Secretary Pete Hegsethand because of that their career stalled instead of being promoted, it will take years to fill again.
A future attorney general—with White House approval—could work to restore the Justice Department’s independence and prevent it from becoming a tool for the president’s personal defense. But he will have a harder time recovering the concept of trust from federal judges which has been wasted over the past 17 months, especially considering how many experienced and neutral lawyers there are. left departmentand how many lawyers with dubious credentials have been hired. (As former Attorney General Merrick Garland can now attest, any regulatory rollback at the DOJ will also be weak without accompanying legislative changes.)
Unless Congress passes legislation to abolish the Department of Education, which seems unlikely, the next administration may give up on Trump’s attempt to kill the department, but the loss of thousands of experienced civil servants in the department and other departments will be a challenge to reverse. The Ebola outbreak has spread rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in part because funding for US work to contain and control the virus was cut by DOGE last year—some of the DOGE cuts came as government spending grew.
The next president will likely be able to fire commissioners and other officials at agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission—thanks, ironically, to Trump’s efforts to close protections for so-called “independent regulatory agencies.” The Supreme Court appears poised to approve Trump’s power grab, so unless Congress passes new legislation to restore the agency’s independence, it will forever be compromised by political interference.
Trump’s threat to leave the Kennedy Center suggests an additional risk: He could lose interest and doze off, as if at another Cabinet meeting or NBA Finals game, leaving parts of the government to fend for themselves. At one point, that might be better, but in their already injured state, being ignored wouldn’t be bad. The successful legal battle to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center is not empty, but it is escalating. The hardest work, for the Kennedy Center and the entire nation, remains ahead.
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Today’s news
- President Trump said in a social media post that he had “canceled planned attacks and bombings against Iran” that was supposed to happen tonight, claiming that the United States and Iran have taken steps toward a peace agreement; he said that the US naval blockade will remain in place until the agreement is completed. The announcement follows a second consecutive night of strikes in southern Iran, where Iran responded with attacks near American bases in Kuwait, Jordan, and Bahrain.
- Trump said he would nominate Jay Clayton to be to be the director of national intelligencereplacing Bill Pulte as acting director after hearing bipartisan concerns about Pulte’s lack of intelligence experience.
- Florida Supreme Court cleared the way for new congressional maps drawn by the GOP will run through the 2026 midterms, defying efforts to block them. The maps, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, could help Republicans win more House seats and reshape races across the state.
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Evening Read
The fruit is very sweet
By Ellen Cushing
If it is possible, in this glamorous age, to be a celebrity fruit, Sumo Citrus is definitely a celebrity fruit. The mandarin-satsuma-orange hybrid, originally developed in Japan and introduced to American grocery stores in 2011, is the most popular new member of the citrus family. accounting for almost a third of the growth of the entire industry recently. This winter, like winters before, my local Trader Joe’s displayed stacks of them in great positions, and often the store would be half sold before the sun went down. Sumo are rediscovered every season on social media, where people talk about their adorable bumpy heads, their generous size, and—oh!—their sweetness.
Of course. Once you taste one, you understand. Dilation of the eyes, smoothness of the coating of the tongue; sticky dribbles under your chin; the feeling of eating candy, that is, in a way, also fruit, a feeling that is as small as robbing a bank at breakfast.
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Cultural Breakdown
Reflection. To understand the history of the nation, check the history of his gamesSally Jenkins writes.
Investigate. “I trained as a dancer. Then I saw the robots moving,” Valerie Trapp writes.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this journal.
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