Donald Trump suffered two legal setbacks on Friday after federal judges ordered him to remove his name from Washington’s Kennedy Center arts venue and blocked a $1.8bn legal fund to help his political allies.In the first blow to the president, district judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia said his administration must temporarily stop taking any actions linked to its so-called anti-weaponisation legal fund, which opponents have dubbed a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies.
Later in the day, Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia blocked Trump’s efforts to shut down the Kennedy Center concert hall for a two-year renovation due to start in July, a cornerstone of his plans to put his stamp on Washington’s architecture.
The court also ordered Trump to remove his name from the building honouring the late president John F Kennedy within two weeks. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.