As the gentle reader already knows because NewsHound Ellen reported it, shortly after Trump suffered another embarrassing loss in court over slapping his cursed name on the Kennedy Center, Trump went on Truth Social and claimed that the board, which is mostly made up of his lackeys, had voted to close the center down and raze the building.
Now, this might come as a shock, but Trump may have been lying.
On Tuesday evening, CNN's Kaitlan Collins brought on Rep. Joyce Beatty to discuss what really happened. What Beatty had to say differed greatly from what Trump had said.
BEATTY: Well, we were in our Kennedy Center board meeting today. It was virtual.
It was first announced that Beatty v. Trump lawsuit, that the judge had rendered the decision that, again, for the second time, that it would be unlawful for Donald Trump to put his name on the Kennedy Center. Shortly after that, we went into talking about, uh, the proposal to renovate the Kennedy Center, and at that time, there were a series of questions that I had, uh, proposed, and the president, uh, threw a tantrum. Uh, I think he was upset because he had lost, and it had been reported. Uh, there was, uh, a lot of things that I thought were very unprofessional. This is the chairman of the board and the President of the United States. So he picked the wrong person to try to attack my character and to berate me. Uh, I was not going to let him tell me that he thought I was incompetent, so I responded by telling him I knew he was incompetent. He wanted to blame me if someone died, if something happened, if the ceiling fell in, and I reminded him that he has us at war, and people are dying. He has tariffs and taxes that are preventing people from buying food or being able to have affordable housing and other things. So it was, uh, a tit for tat, and this is the chairman, uh, of the board. Uh, I was disappointed, but I was not going to let him get away with bullying, bullying me because that's what he does. He tries to intimidate people. He tries to bully, uh, them because he didn't get his way because he wanted this to be his vanity project.
COLLINS: So Congresswoman, if I'm understanding you, so at one point you said the president suggested if someone died at the Kennedy Center that it would be your fault?
BEATTY: A- absolutely. He said he was gonna hold me personally responsible, uh, and it was my, uh, fault. And, and when you think about what he did, not only during the board meeting, but what he then put out after the board meeting that many people are reporting, it's not true. That was not what the vote was.
He stated that we voted to close down the Kennedy Center today. While I did not support the vote, the others who voted did not vote for the language that he is putting up on Truth Social and saying to people. Uh, nor did we hear anything about him holding, uh, $17 million he was going to put in there or hold it, again, unlawfully, if he did not get his name on the Kennedy Center board. The Kennedy Center is not closed down at this time. We are looking into it. He would be in contempt of court. The Department of Justice is looking into it. It is open at this time. There were rumors that he told everyone to evacuate the building, and it was being closed.
Beatty went on to describe Trump's boorish behavior as an immature child having a temper tantrum, which does sound completely plausible.
