Donald Trump is still battling the courts after officials snatched his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The 80-year-old president had hoped the venue would be shuttered by now and in the throes of a two-year renovation process.
At least part of the wish has come true.
Ticket sales began to dwindle after officials added Trump’s name to the building last year. In June, a judge ordered officials to remove it.
Since then, large scaffolding and a tarp have covered the center’s signage.
The board has until Aug. 20 to explain why the blockage is there and to provide details about its operations during the proposed makeover. Officials extended the original July 12 deadline to remove the tarps.
Trump’s name also disappeared from related materials, including the center’s digital branding. Officials also restored its LinkedIn page, which had previously displayed the “Trump Kennedy Center” logo.
According to one critic, “Trump still won’t take the tarp off the Kennedy Center even though his name was removed. The next president will have to clean up his mess. He likes to cause chaos so he got what he wanted in a way.”
“The tarp covering Kennedy Center is there bc Trump needs to hide, not his shame, his anger,” tweeted another.
“Waiting to see when Trump will add his name to other memorials. Trump ballSroom is a disaster costing taxpayers $ millions &millions $…another wasteful Trump spending spree. Pure Trump.”
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Trump’s failures include the renovated Abraham Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the White House ballroom, and granite helipad. Officials have hidden all of them behind tarps, along with the renovated columns.
A Trump supporter expressed frustrations with the backlash.
They sarcastically wrote, “Yes, no building in America has been shut for renovation before. This is definitely a new concept.”
Another said, “What a terrible shame. The Center used to showcase the best performers in the world to sold-out audiences. Now, under Trump, it is crumbling. Somehow, this cultural institution needs to be brought back to its formal glory. Trump needs to leave the Board immediately.”
Last month, the Kennedy Center halted its 50-year tradition of offering free daily tours.
“Oh, please. He’s closing it in another one of his petulant hissy fits because they wouldn’t let him add his name to an assassinated President’s memorial like some kind of ghoul,” a response read.
Now, the only feet scampering through the buildings are those of remaining employees and the storied Italian mice.
“They’re just cute as the dickens,” Colleen Shannon, a member of the Family Theater lighting crew, told the New York Times. “So tiny. The cockroaches are bigger,” added Shannon.
But even the pests have been scarce in the wake of Trump’s hijacking of the Kennedy Center.
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One heckler snapped, “Well the White House is FILLED with HUGE RATS.”
Legend suggests that the rodents, believed to be a species of the Apodemus genus of field mice, traveled to the U.S. in large crates filled with marble for the Kennedy Center between 1968 and 1970.
Officials have never located the animals’ skeletal remains; therefore, they cannot confirm where the animals came from.
Mouse traps around the memorial are empty; only a trail of mice droppings and stolen bait confirm that the small mammals have been around. “They know how to chew off the peanut butter,” Ian Millholland, an Opera House electrician, told the NYT.
The mice may have outwitted Kennedy Center staff, but Trump remains vexed by unfulfilled plans to leave a dignified imprint on Washington.
For now, Trump’s grand Kennedy Center takeover has produced more tarps, empty mousetraps and court battles than the transformation he promised.
His plans to reshape one of Washington’s most recognizable cultural institutions are crumbling. Instead, his name is gone, and even the center’s legendary mice appear to have found a way to outmaneuver him
