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Trump Fumes Over Legal Setbacks 06/01 06:21
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Saturday branded the federal
judge who blocked his renovation of the Kennedy Center as "an anti Trump Hater"
and predicted that the nation's premier performing arts center he wanted to
shutter for a two-year overhaul will "soon be closed, probably never to open
again."
In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump fumed about the Friday
decision from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper who also ordered Trump's
name removed from the center. Clearly angered by his latest legal setback, he
said it was "impossible for me to be treated fairly," tying Cooper's ruling to
earlier losses, including the Supreme Court's rejection in February of his
sweeping tariffs.
His post aimed to make the case for the project even as he says he's giving
up on it. Hours after Cooper's decision, Trump said he was backing away from
the renovations and making arrangements to relinquish control to Congress of
what, until the Republican president's second term, had been known as the John
F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In another post on Saturday, Trump invoked the Kennedy Center episode as he
addressed a spate of musicians backing out of a celebration for the country's
250th anniversary.
"Cancel it," Trump wrote, "just like I canceled my involvement with the
failing and unsafe to be in Kennedy Center, because a Highly Conflicted,
Crooked Federal Judge, said that I should not be allowed to spend my time and
money in order to MAKE THE CENTER GREAT AGAIN."
The White House did not immediately say whether Trump would keep serving as
the center's board chairman.
Trump's signal that he's retreating from the center gave hope to artists who
had been alienated by his takeover, said Norm Eisen, a former White House
ethics lawyer who is involved in a lawsuit challenging Trump's Kennedy Center
plans.
"I have already heard from artists and from audience members alike who are
excited about the Kennedy Center returning to non-partisan normality," Eisen
told The Associated Press in a text message on Saturday. "It's early days yet
but as and when the court's order is implemented, including Trump's name coming
off the building and the Board otherwise complying with the law, I'm optimistic
that the Center will begin the long journey back."
Trump cites judge's wife
Without offering evidence, Trump suggested that Cooper's wife, lawyer Amy
Jeffress, was to blame in part for the ruling. The president noted that
Jeffress, a partner at the Hecker Fink law firm, is a former federal prosecutor
who served as a counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder during the
administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. Cooper was nominated for
the bench by Obama.
Trump also noted that Hecker Fink is representing former President Joe Biden
in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice to block the release of audio
recordings and transcripts from the Democrat's interviews with a ghostwriter
that were obtained in an investigation into Biden's handling of classified
documents from his time as a senator and as vice president.
Trump asserted that the Kennedy Center, named for the late Democratic
president and opened in 1971, was "rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested"
and that the "new Building would have been incomparable."
Cooper said in his ruling that the center board's March 16 vote to close the
venue was "ill-informed and seemingly preordained" with no regard for its legal
obligations. The administration had announced the work would begin in July and
last approximately two years. Cooper's ruling halts those plans for now.
The judge also found that the board "overstepped its statutory bounds" by
adding Trump's name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name,
and only Congress can change it, he said. Cooper ordered that Trump's name be
removed within two weeks.
President defends adding name to the center
Trump on Saturday said it was the board, not him, that added the Trump name
to the center. "They thought it would be good for this dying Institution," he
wrote.
Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, he ousted the center's
previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board of trustees that
named him chairman.
Cooper held hearings in late April for parallel lawsuits challenging the
project. One lawsuit was filed by a group of cultural and historic preservation
organizations. The other was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who
serves as an ex officio member of the board through her position in Congress.
He ruled in favor of Beatty's request but rejected the other challenge.
Trump, in his post, also noted that Jeffress' firm represented E. Jean
Carroll, the longtime advice columnist whose claims against Trump won her a $5
million award in 2023 for sexual abuse and defamation after a jury agreed that
Trump sexually abused her in a New York department store dressing room in 1996.
Another jury in 2024 awarded Carroll an additional $83 million for defamation.
Both awards are under appeal.
Jeffress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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