Donald Trump has announced that he is closing the Kennedy Center — pardon me, the Trump Kennedy Center
— for two years starting this July. This is for necessary renovations
, he says. He also says he’s awaiting approval from the board.
The president said that this would take effect July 4, pending approval of the board, a group that he has appointed and made himself the chairman of.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a bold prediction that on July 5, he will start “renovating” with backhoes and bulldozers, that he will proceed with no plans for what renovations will be done other than a vague demand for more gold-plated geegaws, and further, that no one in congress will raise a hand in protest, and the laws regulating historical buildings in Washington DC will be ignored.
Another prediction: the building doesn’t actually need major renovations, but that this demolition will occur solely because artists around the world are cancelling engagements at anything with the Trump name on it, and he finds this embarrassing.
He really is determined to leave his mark on the country, even if it is only a mark of shame.
When Germany turned fascist we ended up having Bomber Harris do the renovations. Wonder who’s gonna leave more destruction in the end.
If we’re being thorough, it’s the “Trump Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” which someday, that name will be fully accurate. Or, arguably, remain endlessly inaccurate, because Trump does not deserve a memorial. May he be a cautionary tale instead.
I’ve seen some reporting about wanting to put in Italian marble armrests on the chairs. Who the HELL wants to sit in a chair with cold stone armrests?!?!?
i’m having trouble imagining the ladies’ rooms without upchucking.
@3 drksky:
As should be quite clear by now, Trump is and always has been more about ‘look what I can do/get away with’ than about actual practicality or comfort, especially for other people. It looks expensive, that’s what matters.
If the Democrats win the next presidential election, I’m sure that Trump’s name will be gone the day after they are sworn in.
Doesn’t matter if they renovate it or not.
Almost everyone is going to avoid it as long as his name is on the building.
“In Washington,
did Don the Con,
a gaudy pedo dome decree.”
I’ve never heard ANYONE saying the KenCen needed any sort of updates, repairs or renovations. No reports of safety problems, code violations, toilets or elevators not working, performers declining because the space and facilities couldn’t accommodate them, NOTHING. This is just Trump being a spiteful idiot tearing down everyone else’s accomplishments.
As PZ said, there are laws about historic buildings in DC, and I really hope the DC government steps up and starts physically enforcing them. As in, block the whole area off from any construction vehicles or equipment, at least until there’s an actual legal consensus and decision that’s fully in accord with whatever laws are currently on the books.
Don’t tell Donald about Germany’s “ruinenprinzip” 1933-45.
Off-topic, I just want to share how pushback is done.
“Elon Musk’s Paris Offices RAIDED by Police”
.
They are investigating if X is being used to manipulate French politics. They are playing hardball with the techbros, and so should every other country.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VFpoTWxL0zk
It had a major renovation in 2019.
Trump doesn’t own the Kennedy center.
It is owned by the public, that is the American people.
As a part owner, my share of the Kennedy center is equal to the Trump share.
It is the same with the White House.
I’m a part owner along with 346 million other people.
As has been said many times lately,
“Everything Trump touches, dies.”
Yeah, my first thought when I read about “renovations” at the Kennedy Center was “just like he ‘renovated’ the east wing of the White House”.
Question: Besides Trump and company, who stands to make money doing this renovation? While I’m sure a component of this “renovation” is driven by his demented ego, there’s also money to be made from it.
It’s called Kubota Theatre.
Remember Bannon’s advice to flood the zone with shit. Which I mention because there has not (yet) been enough outrage about Trump’s goal to build an arch larger than the Arc de Triomphe. When he croaks, I don’t know what we are going to do after demolishing all his monstrosities.
He might leave a mark of shame on USA, but the result over this side will probably be huge nuclear craters. And althgough they’ll probably emanate from the east, it will be with someone’s tacit approval; he isn’t going to invoke MAD. And it’s not impossible they’ll come from the other direction, he’s that far up the wall.
Once Trump’s Adderall-addled brain realises he is on the way out he’ll burn down the country out of spite. This is just the beginning.
Yeah, Trump is the skid marks in the US shorts (and those shorts aren’t clean to start with).
^ About that… this just appered at Youtube
Press rushed out after Trump “pooped pants”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-fi_PcYSs9A
@7. Snarki, child of Loki : Nicely done altho’you forgot your apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge* at the end!
Here’s hoping some metaphorical “Person from Porlock” interrupts Trump and permanently destroys his current “vision” ASAP!** This time that figure would be doing Humanity a favour..
.* See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubla_Khan
.** Has anyone written an SF time travel story where that person from Porlock is stopped from interupting and Coleridge gets to finish Kubla Khan I wonder?
Renovated as luxury apartments?
1963: John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald
2026: John F. Kennedy Memorial Center is assassinated by Donald John Trump
There’s a recent Vox post on this: Why is Trump so obsessed with the Kennedy Center? with a subhead of “The president has always loved theater. It’s never loved him back.”
It points out that Trump has actually been involved with Broadway off and on for a long time, including being co-producer on a flopped show back in 1970, and a regular fixture at shows; his ex-wife Marla Maples spent time as an actress on Broadway. As his time with Pro Wrestling and The Apprentice both demonstrate, he’s always been about ‘putting on a show’… it’s just the big names in Broadway never really wanted much to do with him.
@StevoR #20:
Well, the original Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency novel (which was partly a recycled Dr. Who script) had the time traveller be the person from Porlock, because the completed poem was apparently part of a psychic attack from an Elder God sort of intelligence. I don’t know of any story that’s done the reverse.
(My understanding is that most people think that Coleridge made up the ‘interruption’ when recounting the story later rather than admit that he just had no idea how to complete the work that started so well.)