After losing Kennedy Center case, Trump throws tantrum, calls for judge’s impeachment
Shortly before Christmas, Donald Trump’s handpicked allies, mindful of the president’s obsession with self-glorification, claimed they’d renamed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, adding the Republican incumbent’s name to the venue.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex officio member of the center’s board who was excluded from voting on the name change, quickly filed suit, arguing not only that the process was improper, but that the entire gambit was illegal for the simplest of reasons: A name change required congressional approval, and that had not happened.
With this in mind, it wasn’t too big of a surprise when U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Friday that Team Trump’s gambit was obviously illegal and gave the Republican operation 14 days to undo what it had done.
On Friday afternoon, when much of the world was waiting for the president to shed light on his plans for the war in Iran, he instead published a 580-word tirade to his social media platform, whining at great length about the judge’s ruling and suggesting he was prepared to give up on his Kennedy Center ambitions altogether. From the online rant:
[B]ased on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it. […]
I have instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution, giving them the responsibility for its Operation, Maintenance, and Management.
In other words, if the courts say Trump has to follow the law, he’ll stomp his feet, take his ball and go home.
On Saturday morning, the president kept going, publishing a 721-word harangue that went after the judge’s wife, before telling the public that the nation’s “Court System is RIGGED.”
For good measure, on Saturday night, the Republican added that the judge and his wife “should be ashamed of themselves,” before concluding, “Judge Cooper, like numerous other Crooked Judges on my cases, should be IMPEACHED.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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