Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has implored a court to let Donald Trump keep his name on the Kennedy Center, claiming that having the “greatest builder ever” renovate the storied arts venue was for America’s own good.
In a wild press conference outside the court where a legal battle over the Kennedy Center took place on Thursday, Lutnick also revealed why Trump was so determined to remake the institution, which was created as a living memorial to fallen president John F Kennedy.
“It’s fun for him,” he said.
“The president works all day every day, and there are two things that he does for enjoyment: he plays golf on the weekend, and he builds,” added Lutnick, whose wife sits on the Kennedy Center’s Trump-stacked board.
“He loves to build. So why are we talking about this? This is what he enjoys.”
Lutnick sat at the front of the court for Thursday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, in what was the second time the judge has been asked to stop Trump’s plans.
Cooper had earlier ruled that only Congress had the authority to change the Kennedy Center’s name, forcing Trump’s own name and branding to be removed in June.
Undeterred, the MAGA-filled board voted this month on a new push to keep the venue as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but also add the words “Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump” on the building.
The grounds would also become “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” with another Trump reference potentially added if a proposed fund reaches $100 million.
As protesters chanted “shame” and “liar” outside the court, a very animated Lutnick described the president as the “greatest philanthropist” and “the most credible person in the world”. Paying tribute to him by putting his name on the building would “entice him” to raise money for the center, he said.
“When he says I’m going to raise the money, you know he’s going to raise the money,” Lutnick said, noting that hundreds of millions of dollars would be needed for the revamp.
“You need to induce him, entice him, get him to agree to wear it and do it.”
He also doubled down on the administration’s extraordinary suggestion this week that the center could be demolished if Trump didn’t get his way because the current facility was so dilapidated that it was now “dangerous.”
“This is for America. This is to create the greatest institution in America,” said Lutnick.
“This building needs to be renovated and restored. Now, if President Trump is the construction manager… he has the power, and he has the expertise to get this done. He is the greatest builder in the world, and he will get it done: on time, on budget.”
In a court filing this week, the administration’s lawyers suggested for the first time that the building could be bulldozed and replaced with an outdoor amphitheater unless they could shut the place down for two years to carry out the renovations needed.
They argued that the venue was “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.”
This led Democrat Joyce Beatty, the sole board member who has opposed Trump’s takeover, to file an emergency motion accusing her colleagues of a “breathtaking assault on the rule of law.”
“It is delusional. And it must stop,” her lawyers wrote.
During Thursday’s two-hour hearing, the judge seemed skeptical of the administration’s push to return Trump’s name to the building and questioned their target date of September 8.
“What’s magic about that date?” Cooper asked, quipping that sometimes judges travel over the Labor Day holiday.
The administration’s lawyer, Bradley Mayers, responded that the timeline aligned with the board’s vote earlier this month.
“That’s all fine and good,” the judge said. “What does that have to do with what Congress intended in these statutes? That’s really what’s before me.”
The president’s obsession with the Kennedy Center is one of the many ways he is trying to reshape Washington in his own image.
The 80-year-old former real estate mogul is also constructing a ballroom at the White House; building a helipad on the South Lawn; and planning a giant arch near the sacred Arlington Cemetery.
He also attempted to paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “American flag blue”—only for his handpicked contractors to damage the iconic landmark.
But the obsession is risky ahead of November’s midterms given millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet due to soaring prices and Trump’s war in Iran.
“Threatening to bulldoze the Kennedy Center over a naming fight is foolish & unconstitutional all at once,” said Beatty’s lawyer Norm Eisen.
“Meanwhile the cost crisis goes unaddressed—which is what people elected him to fix.”
