What did Donald Trump do today?

He threw a private temper tantrum to match his public one over not getting to chisel his name on the Kennedy Center.

Trump threw a predictable tantrum on social media today over the latest ruling by a federal judge preventing him from carving his name into actual stone of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Judge Christopher R. Cooper, who earlier this year found that Trump had no authority to rename the Center for himself, said that the latest attempt to add Trump's name to the Center without technically changing the legal name was "linguistic gymnastics." The Center was dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy by an act of Congress, Cooper ruled, and only another law could rededicate it to Trump or anyone else.

Trump's name was removed from the facade earlier this year under court order, but only after a tarp was put up to block video of the removal. It has remained in place since.

In response, Trump ranted on social media, threatening in effect to disobey Cooper and any higher court ruling that went against him by shutting the Center down indefinitely unless Cooper's ruling was overturned. The performance was typical of Trump's social media eruptions, personally attacking the judge and casting himself as the hero.

But Trump also lost his temper in private, too, screaming over the phone during a Board meeting at the member whose lawsuit kept his name off the building: Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat. Beatty is an ex officio member of the Board and was one of the few people Trump couldn't purge when he returned to office. A source who listened to the call said the spectacle of Trump berating Beatty was "fucking crazy." 

Like many people who have made Trump lose his temper, Beatty is a Black woman.

Immediately after Cooper's ruling, the Board voted to close the Center. Staff and visitors were ordered out this afternoon. Lawyers fighting Trump's attempts to rename the Center for himself said the Board risked a contempt charge by doing that. Virtually all of the Board's current members are personal Trump loyalists appointed since he returned to office, and include people like Trump's personal criminal defense lawyers, spouses of people he can fire from government positions, and Fox News hosts. Officially, the Board's reason for the closure is that Trump and only Trump can raise the necessary money to keep the Center's budget afloat—and only if he receives "appropriate recognition."

It's certainly true that the Kennedy Center's finances are in much worse shape since Trump personally took over. Like any such organization, its budget relies on ticket sales, facilities rentals, and private donations. All of these revenue streams have fallen off a cliff in response to Trump's attempts to remake it in his image and name. As one official put it, "Donors disappeared, ticket sales disappeared, artists disappeared—like it was doomsday."

The Trump-controlled Board has not, in any court filing or public document, acknowledged the fact that massive artist and ticket-buyer boycotts of Trump's takeover are the reason the Center is suddenly and for the first time in financial jeopardy. 

The Board also cited the danger to the public posed by supposedly deteriorating facilities. But those claims, which Trump has been making for over a year now, are lies. As with any large public facility, routine maintenance is needed constantly—although Trump and the board he controls now have a motive to let the buildings deteriorate. Congress allocated more than a quarter-billion dollars for renovations this year, at Trump's urging, in spite of the fact that the Center had just completed a huge renovation project in 2023. But Trump is now refusing to spend any of that money unless the Center is renamed for him. 

Why does this matter?

• Obsession with glorifying yourself above all other concerns is called megalomania, and while it's not uncommon among wannabe dictators, it's not a sign of good mental health or actual popularity. 

• "If I can't have this thing, I'll destroy it" is a shitty way to run anything, much less a country.