Trump Spirals and Threatens to Tear Down Kennedy Center as Judge Considers Contempt Charges

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0:24Michael Popok:Donald Trump likes to tear down things in the middle of the night. Now he's threatening to tear down the Kennedy Center and replace it with, I don't know, a simple amphitheater, open air amphitheater on the Potomac. That in a new filing by the Kennedy Center board, which now that I've read the minutes from their last board meeting is completely dominated by somebody who's not even on the board. the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, who seems to be running the show inside of the board meeting about what they should vote on and how they should vote on it and how big the name for Donald Trump should be on the side of it.

0:59Michael Popok:And if he doesn't get his way and he doesn't get his name on the side of the building in three lines of typeface, Donald Trump is threatening to tear down the Kennedy Center. And they told the federal judge, Judge Cooper, who's holding a hearing this week about it, that they can't raise any money without Donald Trump's name being on it. Turns out it's the exact opposite. His name being on it is an inhibition to people donating. They can't raise money with his name on it. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Legal AF to kick off a Wednesday morning. And let's get down to business and the new filings. Judge Cooper said to Joyce Beattie, who's one of the ex-officio members on the board, There's like 20 or 30 members of the board of directors or the board of trustees.

1:50Michael Popok:And she filed a motion and let the court know that they passed a resolution on the August 13th meeting in which they're going to try to slap Donald Trump's name back on this, not as a memoriam, but as a recognition of Donald Trump's contributions to the Kennedy Center. except the organic law that established the Kennedy Center said it has to be exclusively a memorial or a tribute to one president. And that president's name is John F. Kennedy. And you can't have anything in the plaza and you can't have anything on the building that suggests otherwise. And they'll say, well, it's not a memoriam because what, he's not dead?

2:27Michael Popok:A memoriam doesn't just mean the person has died. You can't take away from the only living tribute to John F. Kennedy that exists in the District of Columbia after his assassination. And then I'm paging through the filing, which of course we're going to put up on Legal AF Substack for our paid members to read. And I catch this very interesting text starting on page seven. The board recognizes that President Trump's efforts and prestige provide the sole hope for the center's financial survival and structural renewal. You know what I noticed about this filing, there's absolutely no supporting affidavit of anybody with knowledge, no evidence that's been provided.

3:10Michael Popok:This is just lawyer words. This is naked argument of counsel. Where's the evidence that the judge is looking for to support this? Where's the citation to anything in the record to support that? In fact, the new reporting is that the fundraising drive is doing terrible, abysmally because of the association with Donald Trump. So every time I read you a naked argument of counsel, that's what we call it, just lawyer pros without support, think this is not persuasive because there's no evidence behind it. I mean, they did submit an affidavit for somebody that runs the place, Mr. LaFauci, it's an interesting name these days, who said, oh, here's the minutes and I took down the minutes from the last meeting, but nothing to support any of these outrageous claims.

3:54Michael Popok:The board also underscores and the undisputed evidence demonstrates, undisputed evidence they have not provided to the court, that without the prominent recognition of the Trump administration and President Trump's efforts, their donors will not contribute. The new reporting is that's exactly the opposite. The Trump administration and Donald Trump should therefore be given the respect and dignity of acknowledgement. In June, the board unanimously voted to recognize the president. Now they're saying that Joyce Beattie, Representative Beattie, voted to change the name. We know that is not true. And if that's the way it was recorded, then the discovery that's necessary to get to the bottom, assuming that meeting was recorded on video or audio, there were people that were phoning in, it probably was transcribed, get the transcript, not the minutes.

4:44Michael Popok:You need the actual verbatim transcript. In fact, though, Congresswoman Beatty voted against the August 13th measure. See, now it's internally inconsistent. First, it says she voted for the name change on August 13th. And next, next they say, oh, no, it was a majority that voted for the name change. And then in the second paragraph, it says, no, she voted against the name change. Make up your minds, everybody. And then here's the part about the teardown and the threat. Donald Trump loves making threats about tearing things down, right, or changing names of things. Like, let's make it Lake America instead of Lake Ontario, because I don't like Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, because he's mean to me in the trade negotiations.

5:29Michael Popok:Without these efforts, the center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down. with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed by some for many years. Such a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy, but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain. There's the thread, everybody. That's not what the organic law says. It doesn't say the President of the United States and the Board of Trustees can tear down the Kennedy Center and put in its place some sort of simplified Home Depot, Ikea, outdoor amphitheater?

6:12Michael Popok:That's not what it says. It says there needs to be a performing arts center. And you have to fix it. You have to do your fiduciary duties. I almost gagged when I read the minutes where Howard Lutnick was advising the board on how to run a board meeting from his vast experience of his family-owned businesses, right? And says during it, we got to make sure we comply with the law. We've got to make sure we do things appropriately and regularly. Where are your lawyers advising you on these things? Where are your lawyers that are advising the board members about their fiduciary duties to make sure that the public trust is not violated?

6:53Let's go to where we know Donald Trump's involved.

6:57Michael Popok:What exclamation marks show up? Page three. Even worse, Beatty's claim further tarnishes the court's decision with Beatty's appearance of bias and partisanship that sullies her endless litigation against the board and threatens to further embroil the court in a partisan lawsuit lacking merit. Now, Judge Cooper issued a 96-page opinion granting Representative Beatty's prior motion for preliminary injunction. Do you think he thinks, and granted a permanent injunction on the name, do you think he thinks this is a partisan? hack job that lacks merit? The appellate court affirmed him about the name change.

7:36Michael Popok:All three of these actions adopted to the board are completely lawful. No statute names the plaza or prohibits the board from renaming it. Just the opposite! That's a lie. Nothing about the Kennedy Center can memorialize anyone other than John F. Kennedy. And it's preposterous to make an argument that because you are trying to acknowledge the future contributions of somebody, which immediately become the past contributions the next day, that that's not a memorial. Likewise, the two planned inscriptions, they say, on the front portico are lawful. An acknowledgment of Trump administration and President Trump's present future efforts to renovate and restore the center is not a memorial.

8:22Wow.

8:23Michael Popok:I don't know what to say. But I'll continue talking about the planned inscription and about how the lettering doesn't violate the organic law, the fact that they're going to slap the name the Trump-Kennedy Center Fund on there. They are dangerously close to being found contempt by Judge Cooper. I mean, seriously. And I don't think he's going to take kindly to the threat without any evidential support whatsoever that they're going to tear down the Kennedy Center in the middle of the night if they don't get their way. Now, I read through the exhibits, including the minutes, although I'd love to get a transcript of what really happened in that room, about the decision to shut down the Kennedy Center from from doing its mission of programming because the building needs to be renovated.

9:19Michael Popok:Okay, then renovate the building in stages and keep the fundraising and keep the programming going

9:28Michael Popok:and the resolution. The interesting thing is who did and who did not vote for this thing or who was absent. Howard Lutnick seemed to be running the gang here. And on the vote about the name change, again, adding three more lines of text to the front portico, all recognizing Donald Trump. This is interesting. Maria Barnaromo from Fox, present but not voting. So she didn't vote. Interesting. Pam Bondi voted. She's on the board. And then when it came to voting on the trustees, you've got the trustees there who were present, all voting yes, except for Lee Greenwood, who was absent. Alma Gildenhorn, absent.

10:23Michael Popok:Patricia Dugan, sorry, Amelia Van Hul of the Van Hul fortune, absent. Susie Wiles voted yes. Sherry Summerall, who's related to Susie Wiles, absent. Trump voted yes. Barbara Long, absent. You're voting to change the name of the building. Don't you think you could show up and vote? Here's the remarks of the chairman. This is supposed to be the chairman, and the chairman is Donald Trump. Secretary Lutnick advised the board that the chairman wished to address the meeting, and the board invited him to do so. First of all, I don't even know why Lutnick is talking in this meeting or being recognized.

11:09Michael Popok:He's not part of the board. His wife is. And voting no, of course. Were Sheldon Whitehouse, no. Rick Larson, no. And Joyce Beattie, no. But why is Lutnick talking so much? which I don't really understand at all, except trying to throw his weight around on behalf of the president. This is going to end up in a hearing. I think it's on Thursday in front of Judge Cooper. We're going to follow it right here on Legal AF. I think this is what's going to happen. The judge is going to find that this is wholly insufficient, that he wants discovery conducted about the meeting, about the resolution, about a transcript.

11:51Michael Popok:He's going to find there's no evidential support for the arguments that are being raised. He's going to find that this violates his preliminary injunction and his permanent injunction about the name and violates the law. And he's going to enter a new emergency stay to block it, period. And we're going to have people in the room. I think Adam Klassfeld of All Rise News is going to be there and he's going to report tomorrow or Thursday from outside the hearing directly to our Legal AF audience. So until my next report, this is Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack.

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