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Donald Trump’s ultimate nightmare—and it’s not what you think
U.S. President Donald Trump in Garden City, New York, U.S., August 14, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
The Kennedy Center Is Being Held Hostage to Presidential Vanity
A Public Institution, a Personal Trophy
The reported Kennedy Center shutdown is not fundamentally a story about Donald Trump’s temperament. It is a story about presidential power being used to turn a national cultural institution into a monument to the president—and to punish that institution when a court interferes.
The sequence is stark: a federal judge barred the Center from restoring Trump’s name; fencing appeared; Trump announced…
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