1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Oh to be a fly on the wall… President Trump apparently threw a "tantrum" during a Kennedy Center board meeting when he learned that a federal judge blocked his latest attempt at institution branding. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, lead plaintiff and ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board, who the judge sided with in his ruling recounted the heated Sept. 15 meeting. She said it opened with attorneys informing the board ‒ which Trump chairs after he appointed himself ‒ that in the case of Beatty v. Trump, "Beatty had been victorious."” “And he went into a tantrum," Beatty said. "I mean, let me just make it simple. It was the most unprofessional thing that I've ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, 'I think you're incompetent.' And I said, 'I know you're incompetent.'" Shortly before the board met, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center's plan to add an inscription below the building's sign to honor Trump's financial contributions violates federal law. And his previous ruling in May ordering the Kennedy Center to remove Trump's name from the center's title and signage. As the president aired his frustrations at her, Beatty said she asked the president, "'Are we really going to do this? This is really unprofessional.' But I was not going to let him call me awful things. And he said he was going to hold me responsible if something fell out of the ceiling (of the Kennedy Center) and killed someone." "And I told him, I said, 'You're already killing people. We're at war. We also have people who are starving,' she added. The rest of the board, mostly handpicked Trump loyalists, voted at the meeting to close the bulk of the Kennedy Center immediately for renovations pushed by Trump. Renovations he says he will pay for out of his own pocket. Is this the same pocket that promised us none of our tax dollars would be spent for a Reflecting Pool rehab and a new glittering ballroom/East Wing? And who knows what all else? The promises of Kennedy Center bankruptcy without his personal fortune to fix it, combined with the assurances his fundraising from private donations will make the Kennedy Center whole again, ring false. So, in a social media post after the meeting, he warned that he won't move forward with his self-funded renovations unless the judge's decision blocking his name from being attached to the building is overturned. And of course the DOJ has appealed the decision. "If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place," Trump said. Beatty also said Trump touted his career as a developer and told her that she had "never done anything." "So I reminded him that he had more bankruptcies than anybody in the room," Beatty said. "I mean, it really went there, because I was not going to let him ‒ he was there in his role as chairman of the board ‒ bully me, intimidate me, and the facts speak for themselves." Beatty added: "He didn't win. He didn't get his vanity project. He didn't get his name on it for the second time, so now he's attacking folks." When asked to respond to Beatty's claims about the board meeting, the WH did not deny her account. This is the Trump deal-making skill in a nutshell. Threaten. Bluff. Denigrate. Bully. Then throw your toys on the floor and storm out. I expect this congresswoman’s stock just went way up in her home district. Because she showed all the cowards in the room how to deal with an empty suit who should never have been given the office he holds. He would happily destroy American institutions solely because he can’t put his name on them. Did no one tell him the presidency is not just another branding venture? If he wants his name on stuff, he should go back to the private sector where he can buy all the vainglorious claptrap he wants. We the people would not mind.