(CNN) — Republicans are facing a potentially ugly 2026 midterm election in less than three months. And nobody seems to be able — or perhaps even cares to try — to prevail upon President Donald Trump to mitigate the damage.
Two recent developments are a case in point.
On Friday, Trump appealed to the Supreme Court to be able to continue building his coveted ballroom — which Americans already don’t like. And the day before, the president and his handpicked board at the Kennedy Center tried to put Trump’s name on the building – again.
Both moves suggest Trump remains preoccupied with his self-gratification and glorification, even though it’s increasingly likely to come at the expense of his party.
After a federal judge rejected the previous attempt to rebrand the center as the “Trump Kennedy Center” — forcing the administration to remove Trump’s name from the building’s façade — the board is now attempting a workaround.
It voted Thursday to add an inscription below the Kennedy Center’s sign that says the complex was “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” It also voted to rename the area around the center the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
(The board is also attempting to close the center for renovations again, after their previous effort was also rejected.)
It remains to be seen whether the moves will pass legal muster.
The federal judge who previously ruled against the administration said that federal law “makes crystal clear” that the center “cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so.”
As CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty notes, the law allows an “inscription on the marble walls in the north or south galleries, the Hall of States, or the Hall of Nations acknowledging a major contribution.”
But even if it turns out this is legal, that doesn’t make it politically wise. And it epitomizes the political malpractice coming from the administration right now.
Just consider the full scope of what’s happening: With just 81 days until a 2026 election in which Republicans seem to be in trouble, the administration is working to slap the name of a living, incumbent president with record-low approval numbers on a prominent cultural institution — for the second time. And crucially, it’s doing so even as Americans overwhelmingly say such efforts have gone too far, that Trump and his administration are focused on the wrong things and that he is too preoccupied with his personal gain.
It’s as if the administration is trying to cement those ill perceptions.
A CNN poll last month found that 59% of Americans said Trump had “gone too far” in “making changes to cultural institutions such as the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.”
Even 32% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents — i.e. Trump’s base — said he had “gone too far” on this.
Also, a Pew Research Center poll in April found just 9% of Americans said it was acceptable to name government buildings after Trump while he is still in office. (Indeed, it’s virtually unheard-of to do this for an incumbent president.)
About eight times as many said either that it was not acceptable to name government buildings after Trump at all (50%), or that it would be acceptable but only after Trump’s presidency is over (21%).
And only 17% of Republicans said it was acceptable to put Trump’s name on government buildings during his presidency, as he’s now attempting to do yet again.
Which brings us to the “but.” Maybe voters don’t really care that much? Maybe the Kennedy Center isn’t as important to some of them as it might be to you (the person who chose to read this analysis about it)? Maybe people think this is silly and bad, but that Trump’s name will just be pulled off when he’s no longer president?
Possibly. But the situation also risks reinforcing a troubling election narrative for Trump and the GOP, which is that the president is way too focused on himself and not the things that are important to voters.
CBS News polling has shown nearly 8 in 10 Americans said the Trump administration has focused “not enough” on lowering prices.
And the CNN poll mentioned above showed 73% said Trump “hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.” That number has steadily risen about 20 points over the course of Trump’s second term.
What do Americans think he is focused on, then? Well, himself.
The CNN poll also showed 66% of Americans said Trump did not put the good of the country above his own personal gain; 76% of independents and 30% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents subscribed to this view.
Focusing on the Kennedy Center — and things like the ballroom, which also appears quite unpopular — in the run-up to the election would seem to be solid evidence that Trump’s priorities remain misplaced.
Americans might not care about Trump’s pet projects as much as, say, the Iran war and the high gas prices it has caused. And those issues surely remain much bigger liabilities for Trump and the GOP, particularly if the president can’t end the war by November 3.
But his obsession with slapping his name on things instead of lowering prices contributes to that narrative, too.
The-CNN-Wire
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