Trump’s Kennedy Center Lie Blows Up as Massive Lawsuit Drops

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2:22Michael Popok:Got some breaking news to kick off Tuesday. The first lawsuit that's been filed to stop Donald Trump from trying to take over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the only memorial that has been authorized by Congress to memorialize and celebrate the life and times of JFK, has been filed by a congresswoman from Ohio's 3rd District, Joyce Beatty, who's also the ex-officio trustee of the Performing Arts Center. We knew she was the right person to bring this lawsuit because back on the 18th of December, it was reported that during a meeting in Palm Beach, some luxury mansion in Palm Beach, where all of the trustees and board members got together, she phoned in to register her objection to the vote to change the name, which is a violation of an act of Congress, a violation of law.

3:18Michael Popok:and she was muted and cut off by the board members. Board members that Donald Trump handpicked, making himself the chairperson of the board, firing all of the board members that were there before and putting on people like Usha Vance, J.D. Vance's wife, Allison Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary's wife, RFK Jr., Linda McMahon of the Department of Education, and the rest. And surprise, surprise, according to the complaint on the 18th of December, they voted without Joyce Beatty's approval over her objection and muting her. They voted to change the name of something they cannot change the name of. And then the very next day, look how quickly they're able to procure the letters to put Donald Trump's name on the building.

4:13Michael Popok:24 hours later, They had the letters to put Donald Trump's name over JFK's name, as if this wasn't in the works for months. I'm Michael Popak. Let's talk about the lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia by Representative Beatty and the group that brought it, which is I want to also do a little shout out to them. And we're going to work hard to get them onto the Legal AF and speak to you. Washington Litigation Group that was founded during this administration to represent people who have been terrorized and tormented by this administration, including people in the Department of Justice and on special counsel Jack Smith's team.

4:57Michael Popok:All right, let's talk about the lawsuit. You're here. Thank you for getting us to one million subscribers. And if you want to join us, which I hope you do, hit the subscribe button below. All right. How did all this happen? Well, we know where it started. Donald Trump has wanted to get his dirty little hands on something and slap his name on it since he's been in office. He's now going to be on the new dollar coin. First time in American history, a living president put his name on something. He changed the name of the Peace Institute to the Trump Peace Institute. He's got his eyes also on the Reagan National Airport.

5:30Michael Popok:But in 1964, after the assassination of JFK, Congress, as a memorial, as a testament, as a celebration of the life and commitment to the arts for JFK, think about this, JFK committed to the arts. Donald Trump hates the arts, has cut all funding to the arts, has used his DEI attacks to go after the arts in funding, now has his name on an arts center because his sycophants on his board said so. Okay, let's get down to the allegations of this complaint. So you have the history, you have the fact that in 1964, and if you walk around Washington, and I encourage you to do it after this administration is over.

6:17Michael Popok:You walk around Washington, you'll see lots of memorials to presidents. There's a new one about Eisenhower. There's the Jefferson Memorial. There's the Lincoln Memorial. But what we don't want is the Trump-Jefferson Memorial, the Trump-Eisenhower Memorial, the Trump-Lincoln Memorial, because Donald Trump, as the executive officer, decides to put his name on it like Saddam Hussein. Let me read to you from the complaint. This is a lawsuit. This is on page two. To stop the unlawful renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Shortly after President Kennedy's assassination, Congress designated the Kennedy Center as the sole national memorial to the late president within the nation's capital.

6:59Michael Popok:But on December 18 and 19, in scenes more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than the American Republic, the sitting president and his handpicked loyalists, that would be Alison Lutnick, Linda McMahon, Usha Vance, renamed the storied center after President Trump. This is a flagrant violation of the law and flies in the face of constitutional order. He first ousted all of the members of the Board of Trustees. He made himself the head of the board. And then on December, on paragraph three, on December 18th, Carolyn LeVette announced that the board just voted to unanimously rename the Kennedy Center, the Trump Kennedy Center.

7:42Michael Popok:And then the very next day, according to paragraph three, workers installed large signage on the outside of the front portico, which now reads the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. That's a mouthful, also illegal. And who believes the vote happens on the 18th? The letters show up on the 19th. Come on. Paragraph four says the meeting was held at the home of one of Defendant Trump's supporters who had been installed by the board. No notice was provided for the name change. Plaintiff Congresswoman Joyce Beattie serves as an ex-officio member and participated remotely.

8:21Michael Popok:She phoned into Palm Beach from Ohio. When the Congresswoman tried to speak in opposition to the name change, she was muted. This was a transparent effort to prevent any disagreement with the board's actions. The proceedings were window dressing for a predetermined decision, a decision that had been made a long time ago. Let me play you a clip of Joy of of the Congresswoman here in bringing in bringing this case. Let's show Joyce Beatty. At the end of the meeting, there was the announcement that there was going to be the renaming of the Kennedy Center to the Trump Center. At that point, I said, I have something to say.

9:01And I was muted. And as I continued to try to unmute to ask questions and voice my opposition to this, I received a note saying that I would not be unmuted. So to be clear, you were cut off. I was cut off. And then it was said that now the vote is unanimous. As an ex officio member, we do have a vote. I was not allowed to vote because I was muted. I would not have supported this. I would have asked several questions about this. And in traditional fashion, we would have had someone talk about why they were doing this, that they had researched this. In my opinion, it is not legal for them to do this.

9:39So we oversee their finances and we believe this is also we also believe this is illegal. This is our living monument to JFK. We didn't build him another statue on the mall. This is something that was built for him because of his dedication to the arts and creativity and free speech. So we are currently looking for any way we can push back as members of Congress, as a subcommittee that controls their finances. But we have found them very non-transparent in terms of explaining exactly how they're spending the money they got in the big ugly bill or what ticket sales are or anything else going on there right now.

10:13As we know, they fired the entire board except the ex officio members, which they couldn't replace them with people who just went along with the president. But I think members of Congress are going to be outraged. I know we are. We're doing a sign on letter to ask our colleagues to say this is not legal. You can't do this. And it's a real insult to the Kennedy family and to JFK. Hey, everybody. Ben Mycelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popak's new law firm. It's called the Popak Firm. Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas mighty and legal AFers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us?

10:57And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this. The consultation with Popak's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopakfirm.com, thepopakfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPAKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popak a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.

11:45Michael Popok:Now, Donald Trump acted all shy and sincerely, modestly receptive to the name change. Oh, they made a name change? I had no idea. And then the letters show up the next day. Let's play Donald Trump feigning ignorance that he just put his name on with his own decision making on the Kennedy Center. Let's play the clip. She just posted on X, your press secretary, that the board members of the Kennedy Center voted unanimously to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center. What is your reaction to that? Well, I was honored by it. The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country.

12:29And I was surprised by it. I was honored by it. You know, we're saving the building. We saved the building. The building was in such bad shape, both physically, financially, and every other way. And now it's very solid, very strong. We have something going on television. And I guess on the 23rd, December, I think it's going to get very big ratings. And the Kennedy Center is really, really back strongly. It's a very bad shape, very, very bad shape physically. And we're also to get Congress to put up a lot of money and other people to put up a lot of money. We had a lot of donors come in for record setting numbers.

13:06So we we saved the Kennedy Center. And I was really this was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members. and they voted on it. And there's a lot of board members and they voted unanimously. So I was very honored. Thank you.

13:20Michael Popok:Here's how it works. Congress allocated the money. Congress made the name for the center as a memorial to JFK. Only Congress can change the name. Donald Trump can't just run around slapping names on, you know, the Trump Jefferson Memorial because he likes the building. so congress currently in the control of the MAGA right wing and Mike Johnson in the house and John Thune in the senate in the house he's down to two three vote lead over the democrats it's going to shrink when Elise Stefanik in New York is stepping down Nancy May says she's going to step down I mean the democrats getting the house is very very important as you can see because the House, Congress should be filing these lawsuits.

14:13Michael Popok:Congress should be filing these lawsuits for violation of their law. Right. I mean, I'll take the Congresswoman, but it's Congress. The fact that they're not doing it tells you everything you need to know and the reason you need to vote Democrat up and down the ticket in about 10 months. This is the actual request. Claim one is breach of the trustees' obligations under a certain statute. Count two is that these acts are ultra-various outside the law. Violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. And then a mandamus request. Here's the prayer for relief, which is what they asked for. They want a declaration that the defendant's actions violate federal law.

14:59Michael Popok:They want to have a declaration that the name of the Kennedy Center is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. declare the vote to change the name null and void, declare that defendants unlawfully prohibited the plaintiff, the congresswoman, from participating fully in the board meeting, order the removal of the signs, order another meeting at which the plaintiff is allowed to fully participate, and join, stop the defendants from further renaming the Kennedy Center, issue a writ of mandamus at all. This is signed by Democracy Defenders Action, Norm Eisen, and the lawyers at the Washington Litigation Group, including Nathaniel Zielinski.

15:46Michael Popok:What's going to happen next? There's going to be an emergency hearing. There's going to be a judge assigned, and we're going to follow up with it right here on Legal AF. I'm glad you're here. hit the free subscribe button. If you want to read the complaint, go to Legal AF Substack and our paid members will get a copy of the complaint they can read for themselves. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack.

16:17Michael Popok:You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.