Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.In today’s edition, Andrea Mitchell dives into the latest in the Kennedy Center saga.Plus, we examine new Republican defectors on the House’s Iran war vote.— Adam WollnerWhat’s in a name? At the Kennedy Center, a multimillion-dollar fightAnalysis by Andrea MitchellAs a private businessman, Donald Trump became known as an expert at branding — specifically, by putting his name on everything from buildings to steaks.
His hugely expanded power as president has given him even more opportunities: an airport, the U.S.Institute for Peace, savings accounts for children and U.S.
currency, to name a few.Now, his branding efforts are at the center of a fierce legal battle over a hallowed memorial to a slain president.
During a pivotal meeting of the new Trump-dominated Kennedy Center board yesterday, Trump got into a shouting match with Rep.Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a holdover ex officio member of the board.
According to multiple people listening to the virtual meeting who described it to NBC News, Trump called Beatty incompetent and destructive, while she called him unprofessional.The board ultimately voted to close the center for renovations.Trump has erupted online with angry posts several times over recent months since a federal court issued a preliminary injunction for now that rejects his bid to add his name to the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ marble facade.The White House obeyed the order to take the name down but covered the altered signage with a tarp so it cannot be seen.The symbolism has legal significance.
Unlike other monuments and buildings Trump has changed in the past year and a half, the Kennedy Center was created by an act of Congress in 1964 as the sole memorial to the assassinated president in the nation’s capital.As such, it is compara...