The Trump administration remains the undisputed world champion and a first-ballot hall-of-famer in the category of picking stupid fights with little or no political upside.
Last week, the White House announced a new effort to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook — likely to be on thin ice with the Supreme Court. Earlier this week, the White House asked the U.S. Justice Department to consider a new prosecution of a man accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Now the Trump administration has launched yet another effort that is just about certain to end up before an irate federal judge.
The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to inscribe President Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order.
According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board’s decision, which directs officials to act by “all legal means,” came shortly after it voted to move forward with Mr. Trump’s plan to shutter the building for renovations. . . .
The move appeared to attempt to find a creative workaround to a provision in the federal law governing the Kennedy Center that says “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas.”
Now, at some point in the not-too-distant future, some judge is going to look at this and is extremely likely to conclude that the Kennedy Center board is violating federal law and is obstinately ignoring court orders. (Trump’s name was removed from the building June 8; the scaffolding blocking the facade is still in place.)
But put aside the likely impending legal defeat. Ask yourself, what is the Trump administration gaining through these shenanigans? What’s the upside?
In 2024, no one voted for Trump because they cared about Lisa Cook’s mortgage agreement. No one voted for Trump because they wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool redone. No one voted for Trump because they wanted to see his name added to the Kennedy Center.
However, a whole lot of Americans voted for Trump because they felt the cost of living had gotten far too high under President Biden, and Trump pledged, “starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.” So far, that’s . . . not going great.
We will see how the midterm elections shake out, but right now, the outlook is pretty grim for Republicans — in the U.S. House, in the U.S. Senate, and in the governors’ races. If the 2026 midterms turn out as badly for Republicans as the numbers indicate, a significant factor will be the Trump administration’s focusing on petty fights and presidential ego trips instead of the issues that voters were most worried about. There are a lot of things a president can’t control, but the one thing he does control is what his administration prioritizes.