The National Opera Company Just Sued the Trump Administration

The organization says that the Trump administration ignored a long-term agreement to seize $17 million.

When President Trump took over the Kennedy Center, his people allegedly ignored a long-term agreement and seized millions of dollars from the Washington National Opera.

That’s what the WNO alleges in a lawsuit against the center, filed Thursday in federal court. According to court documents, the WNO and the center had a contractual relationship for nearly 15 years in which operas were held at the venue in exchange for the center providing support services for the WNO, including managing donations.

With the Trump administration’s takeover of the center, however, many of those services, including marketing, fundraising, and administrative tasks ended as of late 2025. When the WNO complained to the center, instead of fixing the issues, the center’s governance proposed ending the relationship in January 2026.

The WNO then asked the center to return its $17 million in funds, which the agreement states belong to the WNO. But despite being contractually obligated to return the funds, the center still hasn’t returned them to the opera, and now the WNO is suing to get that money back.

All of this comes as a judge denied a last minute appeal from to keep Trump’s name on the center Friday. Now, Trump may follow through on his stated desire last month to hand over control of the center to Congress. Will he follow through, or try to defy the ruling?

Trump’s Renovation Obsession Exposes Worrying Detail About His Health

A medical professional warned Donald Trump’s constant talking about his vanity projects is a sign of things getting worse.

Like a tongue on a sore tooth, Donald Trump keeps coming back to his renovation projects.

The intrusive topic has won his mind in all sorts of inappropriate settings: he has deflected from the Iran war and inflation concerns by fixating on the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, pivoted to renderings of his construction projects during an Oval Office meeting with Mark Rutte that was intended to focus on global alliances and security issues, and interrupted a January meeting with oil executives about Venezuela’s future to mention his $400 million ballroom, an idea so inspiring that he stopped the conversation and walked to a window to muse about its construction.

A prominent clinical psychologist has signaled that the tireless obsession could be a warning sign of cognitive decline.

Dr. John Gartner, a former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, told The Daily Beast Thursday that the president’s repetitive verbal ramblings are symptomatic of something much graver.

“Tangential speech is one of the diagnostic criteria for dementia,” Gartner told the Beast.

“What he’s obsessed with is a function of malignant narcissism. He’s obsessed with things that reflect glory on him,” Gartner continued. “He’s changing Washington, D.C., to Trump D.C.”

That could include any number of projects: Trump has also (impermanently) plastered his name on the Kennedy Center and proposed a 250-foot “Arc de Trump” in the nation’s capitol.

An........

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