Sen. John Kennedy has proposed barring living politicians from having buildings named after them as Trump pushes to rename the Kennedy Center.
Page A4From§Eachthe milkman edition — 28 September 2026
TWO INJUNCTIONS
Senator proposes making permanent by law what a federal judge already ordered for free
As it ran on the front
All together now — line one of Judge Cooper's order, dated September 15: "Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing." That is a federal judge, blocking a federal name, from a federal building, because the board's vote skipped Congress.
The board asked anyway. It had voted, handpicked by Trump himself, to put the name back on the facade, purportedly to "recognize and honor" him — Judge Cooper's own description of the board's reasoning. The same Tuesday, the same board voted to close the Kennedy Center's main building for renovations that, per the president, will not happen. A building that cannot carry his name is now a building that cannot open at all.…
…(cont) Trump called the Center "destined to doom." The Kennedy family called the whole campaign "small minded" and "narcissistic," three days later, once the doom had a shape.
A second name, on a second building, hit a second docket the same week. The State Department renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after Trump in December, silver letters bolted to the exterior, removable, as if even the sign-makers weren't sure. On September 18, the Institute's former board filed an emergency motion asking a second judge to take the letters back off. That motion is still pending. One judge has ruled. One has not. Both buildings, this month, ended up in front of a bench because a name went up before anyone asked permission.
Which brings us to Senator John Kennedy, filing his own paperwork this week: a proposal barring any living politician's name from any federal building, permanently, by statute — the same result Judge Cooper's order already produces, notarized. The judge wrote a ruling. The senator wants to write the ruling into law, so the next president who wants a name on a wall has to beat an act of Congress instead of one judge in a Washington courtroom.
Two buildings. Two dockets. One senator now filing paperwork to make permanent what a court already did for free.
“They shut the whole building down rather than open it without his name on it — that's not an accident, that's the priority, stated out loud, by the board he picked himself. Every day the doors stay locked over a signature is a day the electricians and ushers and ticket-takers who actually work there don't get to work. The senator's fix just writes into law what a judge already forced for free, and the building the public paid for stays dark either way.”
“Look, the board voted to recognize the president's achievements, that's not a scandal, that's institutional gratitude, and courts really shouldn't be micromanaging who gets a plaque. The renovation closure is completely unrelated timing, coincidental, nothing to do with the ruling — okay, it was the same Tuesday, fine, but buildings close for renovations all the time, this isn't a strategy. Did I just call a shuttered national arts center "unrelated timing"? That doesn't sound like me.”
The receipts
· Trump Says Kennedy Center Is 'Destined to Doom' After Judge Stops Him From Slapping His Name on It from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· JFK's family slams Trump over Kennedy Center: 'How small minded, how narcissistic' from the morgue, 18 Sep 2026
· Judge bars Kennedy Center board from putting Trump’s name on building at all from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Emergency motion filed to stop Trump’s name from being engraved on Institute of Peace building from the morgue, 18 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.