Letters from an American - Unlawful Government Action

Episode Date: June 13, 2026

June 12, 2026Today was the deadline for removing Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center, The DOJ asked for a stay, but Judge Christopher Cooper ruled against them, The Kennedy Center board then filed an emergency appeal, alleging that the board would strip all funding unless Trump’s name remains on the building, The Washington National Opera has filed a suit claiming they are owed $17 million of the money Trump says now belongs to the Kennedy Center, Trump has seized funds appropriated for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Federal agencies and the UFC are putting at least $60 million toward the White House cage fight scheduled for Trump’s 80th birthday, Trump brags about the gilding of the horse sculptures by the Lincoln Memorial, The sculptures and Trump's proposed arch echo Victor Orbán’s use of architecture and memorials as symbols, Before day's end, the appeals court denied the motion to stay the removal of Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center and the removal was underway overnight.Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

June 12, 26. Today was the deadline set by Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for Donald Trump's name to come off the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, more commonly known as the Kennedy Center. In his ruling of May 29, Cooper noted that Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it. And Congress stipulated that no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the Kennedy Center. As soon as he took office in early 2025, Trump replaced trustees on the Kennedy Center board and appointed himself a trustee as well. Now waited with loyalists, the board elected Trump chair and then replaced the president of the president of the president of the president of the president. Kennedy Center. Then the board voted to change the center's bylaws to concentrate their own power. Then, in December, the board voted to rename the Kennedy Center, the Trump Kennedy Center, and the name went up over the Kennedy Center portico the next day. Representative Joyce Beattie,

a Democrat of Ohio, who as an ex-officio member of the center's board, had been sidelined, sued to stop the renaming and won. Cooper ordered Trump's name to be taken off the building, all signage, stationary, merchandise, and so on before midnight tonight. At first, the Kennedy Center seemed willing to comply, removing Trump's name from its website and YouTube page, but that cooperation changed yesterday when the board voted to launch a last-minute appeal to the removal order. hours later, the lawyers from the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal. They asked for a stay on the judge's order to remove Trump's name from the building, saying the board would be forced to squander time and money if the appeals court decides in its favor,

and that it would be incredibly confusing for the public if, in the end, Trump's name went back up after coming down. Cooper decided against them, saying they had not shown they would win their appeal on its merits. He said staying in the order would not be in the public interest, which is rarely served by the perpetuation of unlawful government action. Late this afternoon, the Board of the Kennedy Center filed an emergency appeal to the D.C. Circuit court asking for a stay in the order to remove Trump's name from the Kennedy Center. It was, perhaps, hasty work. Legal analyst Liz Die called it boncady bonkers,

while lawyer Norm Eisen of the contrarian went for bat-h-h-h-h-crazy and noted that Trump clearly wrote big pieces himself. For the first time, the board alleged that the bylaws of the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation state, unequivocally, that the board must strip all funding from the Kennedy Center unless Trump's name stays on it. Die notes, if the bylaws were amended, they were amended since Judge Cooper issued his order, probably yesterday. This is the board choking off funds and saying, you have to let us break the law, or we'll lose all the funds. According to a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Washington National Opera,

about $17 million of the money Trump appears to be claiming from the Kennedy Center belongs to the Washington National Opera. For 15 years, the suit says, the opera and the Kennedy Center had a contractual relationship, in which the center managed donations to the Washington National Opera for the opera's benefit. By the second half of 2025, the Kennedy Center stopped performing many of its obligations under the governing affiliation agreement, including marketing, fundraising, and administrative support, as well as timely reporting on the growth of the Washington National Opera's funds, the suit says. Despite repeated requests from the Washington National Opera, the Kennedy Center did not remedy its non-performance.

Instead, it proposed that the parties end their long-standing affiliation. That affiliation came to an end in January 26. And then the Kennedy Center refused to return the Washington National Opera's money, instead using it as collateral for its own line of credit. Yesterday, Tony Aguilar Rosenthal of the Revolving Door Project and Alan Zybel of Public Citizen did a deep dive into Trump's determination to turn other people's money to his own. service. They note that Trump and his allies seized the funds Congress appropriated for celebrations to honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and have

awarded nearly $103 million in federal contracts and grants to politicized entities under the control of Trump administration officials and political allies. Nearly 80 percent of the $126 million of funding for the semi-Quincentenary celebrations. Private funding, including from corporations with issues in front of the administration, has also poured money into Trump's events. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the administration is hoping to complete Trump's 250-foot-tall triumphal arch before he leaves office. To do so, they are anticipating keeping

working 20 hours a day. They say they do not need congressional approval. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut, has asked officials from the National Park Service to explain and to justify why they are ignoring normal rules for federal contracting and instead handing out no-bid contracts saying the project is urgent. Yesterday, Ashley Fields of the Hill reported that federal agencies and ultimate fighting championship, or UFC, are putting at least $60 million toward the White House cage fight on Trump's 80th birthday Sunday. That money has paid for the fighting arena on the south lawn of the White House, as well as paying up to 900 workers since May 20th. A political activist and military veteran from Virginia tried to stop the event from

proceeding, calling it a deeply corrupt event that uses national monuments to shill for private businesses, in at least one of which, UFC's parent company TKO Holding Group, Trump owns significant amounts of stock. They noted that although Trump used the 250th anniversary to justify ignoring environmental review and congressional approval, the event is clearly designed not for the nation's birthday, but for his own. Today, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the lawsuit, saying that the Virginians did not have standing to challenge the UFC fight, and that the time and money invested in the event outweighed any temporary harm they suffered. On social media today, Trump posted images of the horse statues behind the Lincoln Memorial being freshly gilded and wrote,

re-gilding of the massive Arts of War sculptures, located between the Lincoln Memorial and the site of the triumphal arch, rapidly continues. The sculptures will be fully re-gilded by July 3rd. The photos were taken yesterday. The Gilders studio has flown in Gilders from around the country to perform this work. Yesterday, Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times reported on how former Prime Minister, of Hungary, Victor Orban, used architecture to reinforce the idea that his government was rebuilding former glories, while the new prime minister, Peter Madhyaar, is contrasting the palaces Orban built to the crumbling hospitals and children's homes around the country, where there was no money for toilet paper. The contrast between the gilded palaces of Orban and his cronies, and the poverty in which every day Hungarians lived

was key to the popular uprising that toppled Orban's government and put Maudeyars in place. Today, Elon Musk, who poured more than $290 million into the 2024 election to elect Trump and other Republicans, became the world's first trillionaire, on paper at least, when shares of his rocket company, SpaceX, were offered to the public. Tonight, the appeals court denied Trump's emergency motion. Observers waiting at the Kennedy Center noted that a rainbow broke out over the building shortly after the decision.

Although the letters for Trump's name went up in hours attached by workers on scissor lifts, taking them down involved so much scaffolding and so many hours that the United States government missed the court-imposed deadline. The Department of Justice said the letters would come down in the early hours of the morning of June 13th, presumably when there would not be the huge audience that has been watching the removal all day, either in person or on live stream, and asked the court for 12 more hours to comply with the court order. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.