Three things happened on the same day. Judge Christopher Cooper rejected the attempt by the Kennedy Center board to circumvent his earlier order by putting Trump’s name on the building as “appropriate recognition” of his renovation and restoration of the structure. The Board closed the Kennedy Center immediately, in defiance of Judge Cooper’s order, calling it an emergency. Trump did what Trump does.

The analogy to a mob boss warning “nice Kennedy Center you got there, it would be a shame if anything happened to it,” is long past its usefulness. Trump doesn’t bother to conceal his threat. Either his name goes up or the Kennedy Center goes down. Pick one, America.

In one sense, this is reminiscent of the kid who killed his parents asking the court for mercy because he’s an orphan.  The Kennedy Center lost its acts, its subscribers, its donors, because of Trump. The argument proffered by the Department of Justice, for which we pay but which serves its liege, is that now that the Kennedy Center finds itself fundless and friendless, only Trump can save it by squeezing funds out of corporations that will require his approval and perhaps the occasional Russian Oligarch who is close personal friends with Junior.

The threat was directed at Judge Cooper, initially, but when he wouldn’t be extorted, it’s now laid out for the D.C. Circuit and, ultimately, the Supremes, who have been largely a disappointment to Trump recently by failing to keep their promise of doing what he tells them to do. Whatever is to become of the Kennedy Center, it will be on their heads in Trump’s mind.

That he refuses to act to preserve the Kennedy Center unless there is something in it for him isn’t a Trump problem, but a court problem. To be fair, nobody thought the transactional president would think otherwise. He does nothing unless there is something for him in it.

Of course, there are still a bunch of folks who go to work in the Capital and who theoretically hold the purse strings who could compel the “renovation and restoration” of the Kennedy Center, if it in fact actually needs such extreme repair. Mind you, it’s unclear what is really needed since we’re constrained to rely on the word of the Board, comprised of such notable structural experts as Melania, under such trustworthy leadership at its chairman, Trump The First.

But much as the machinations by the Board defying the orders of Judge Cooper are in our face at the moment, the matter has yet to be subject to appellate review.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has yet to rule on whether Mr. Trump’s name can be restored to the center — a pending decision that Mr. Trump referred to on social media and could ultimately be appealed up to the Supreme Court.

During the period of time awaiting a ruling from the Circuit, and likely the Supremes on the shadow docket (where there is a permanent template caption of “Trump v. _____”), the structure will remain empty and abandoned. You’ll never guess what happens to buildings left unattended and unused. Okay, you guessed: They deteriorate. Whatever is needed to repair the Kennedy Center today is far less than what will be needed presently. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy that the neglected structure will eventually become unsalvageable, or at least far more difficult, time-consuming and costly to repair later.

The day will come when a final decision on Judge Cooper’s order is handed down, and when that happens, it would shock no one if the bulldozers are lined up in the Not-Trump Plaza ready to demolish the structure bearing the name John F. Kennedy. If they won’t let Trump put his name on it, you can bet Trump’s spite and vanity won’t let it stand. And who is going to stop him?