Trump officials did something ridiculous to protect his feelings: report

A recent mystery involving President Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center has seemingly been solved — and the explanation is both petty and absurd.

“They somehow obtained this great photograph behind the tarp, behind the curtain,” reported podcaster Jim Acosta on Tuesday. Acosta was referring to the tarp and scaffolding that was constructed in front of the Kennedy Center after Trump’s name was removed pursuant to a recent court order. Observers were left in the dark as to why the building’s front was being concealed.

“If you guys haven't seen this, take a look,” Acosta said. “This shows you how Trump's name has been taken off of the Kennedy Center. Remember, it was a couple weeks ago — or almost a couple weeks ago — we were there live for like 15 hours. We thought we were all going to pass out. And they put up this very elaborate scaffolding. And we thought at the very end of it, they were going to use that scaffolding to take the name off of the Kennedy Center.”

Yet the obstructions remained present long after Trump’s name was removed, and it took a peek behind the curtain to figure out why.

“They did it to hide the fact that they're taking his name off of the Kennedy Center,” Acosta said. “But it just goes to show you the lengths that they will go to in this administration to spare Donald Trump and his feelings from getting hurt.”

He added that creating ambiguity about whether Trump’s name had been removed was about more than protecting the president’s ego, but also reinforcing his sense of power even in the face of a legal setback.

“For a week or so, people were saying, ‘Is his name really off the Kennedy Center? I don't know. Maybe it's still up there,’” Acosta said. “I mean, this — it just tells me how we're really stuck in this sort of Kim Jong-un-like parallel universe.”

American history and civics podcaster Sharon McMahon argued that the decision to drape over the name was clearly done to ameliorate Trump.

“There's no reason to have scaffolding covering up something that isn't there — that makes no sense, right?” McMahon said. “It makes no sense to cover something that doesn't exist, except to prevent him from having to look at it and except to prevent people from taking pictures in front of it and posting all the selfies to social media and the news orgs.”

Despite being ordered by a court to remove Trump’s name, the Kennedy Center board (which is dominated by Trump appointees) initiated an attempt earlier this month to get his name restored in different ways.

CBS News reported last week that the Kennedy Center will create a new endowment fund named for Trump and known as the "Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” It is specifically described as "a landmark commitment to securing the future of the nation's preeminent performing arts institution and its enduring legacy of artistic excellence."

The report added, "A source with knowledge of the plans for the endowment suggested it will focus on the 'physical disrepair' of the building, an element the current board feels has been neglected in the past.”

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