Of the many inappropriate and often illegal decisions Donald Trump has made since his second election to the presidency, adding his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Art ranks as one of the worst, least justified by history, and one that blatantly violates a statute governing the name of the institution. Not that we would expect Trump to honor the laws of the United States that he generally regards as inconveniences unless they produce revenue for him and his family.

Trump couldn’t wait to add his name to the Center. To get the job done, he fired the managing board and replaced it with people who would do his bidding. An immediate response was that many artists decided they could no longer perform at the Center because doing so would be seen by many as endorsing or at least supporting Trump’s decision to rename the iconic arts center.

So, when Chuck Redd, a well-known local musician, cancelled the Christmas Eve performance he had led for some 20 years, the Trump-designated “President” of the Center, Richard Grenell, threatened Redd with a lawsuit, claiming damages of $1 million. https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/12/27/trump-kennedy-center-chuck-redd/

According to Wikipedia, Mr. Grenell has never attended law school and the identity of the attorneys advising him has not been revealed. So we have the following situation: Grenell, a non-lawyer but Trump sycophant, has claimed Mr. Redd has damaged the Kennedy Center (I will never refer to it with Trump’s name) by engaging in “classic intolerance” and a “political stunt” that was “costly” to the ”non-profit Arts institution.”

In law school I paid pretty close attention in torts and contracts classes. I did not fail to note that there is no legal “cause of action” [grounds for suit] based on “class intolerance” and “political stuntery.” There is a cause of action for breach of contract, of course, and I suppose it’s possible  Mr. Redd signed a contract binding him to perform his holiday show. If so, he will have to deal with that. If he had bound himself that way, however, I would have thought Mr. Grenell, armed with the expert advice of the Trump-loyalist attorneys we have come associate with Mr. Trump’s finest legal work (Habba, Giuliani, Ellis, Halligan, Pirro, Chesebro, Eastman, Powell, Mitchell ….),  would have chosen his words more carefully.

The Washington Post reported that:

Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, added in an emailed statement to The Post: “Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled — they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people.”

Who is going to tell Ms. Daravi that slavery went out a very long time ago and that performing artists do not have a “basic duty … to perform for all people?”  Name calling is, of course, standard practice for Trump and his associates, which brings to mind that Trump may be the “real party in interest” on the plaintiff’s side of the threatened litigation. If so, he is subject to having his deposition taken. Wouldn’t that be a stitch? Chuck Redd takes the Trump deposition that Robert Mueller never did.

Of course, these threats also face the fact that the artistic community that normally works the Kennedy Center has from the outset made clear it will not support Trump’s perversion of the Center to his ego-maniacal purposes. As the Post reported, Mr. Redd is not alone in his refusal to accept Trump’s officious renaming of the Center:

The Kennedy Center has experienced a steep decline in ticket sales since Trump’s takeover of the institution compared with the same period last year …. Sales for orchestra, theater and dance performances are the worst they have been since the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Post analysis.

In the weeks after the February board changes, at least 20 productions were canceled or postponed, with names such as comedian and actor Issa Rae pulling out of planned performances at the center, and musical artist Ben Folds and opera singer Renée Fleming announcing they were stepping down as artistic advisers.

This is all very sad. My wife and I bought a subscription to multiple programs this year because we have a compelling need to see and support groups like American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet both of which are slated to appear this season. Our subscription included Spamalot that we thought was pretty awful as entertainment. It’s worth noting that the audience for the show was so reduced that the Center moved the event to the smaller Eisenhower Theater. There were still many empty seats.

Trump’s determination to honor himself at every opportunity is not going to go well and once he is gone, all of these outrages will be reversed. It can’t happen too soon.