Can President Trump Appoint Himself Chairman of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees?
President Trump announced that he would appoint himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. 20 U.S.C. § 76h provides that “The general trustees shall be appointed by the President of the United States.” As a statutory matter, Trump seems to have this authority. I am unaware of any instance in which any President has ever appointed himself to an office. (Here, I will assume that the chairman position is in fact an office, but I haven’t thought the issue through fully; indeed, the precise status of the Kennedy Center is apparently an open question.)
Is such a self-appointment constitutional? First, in the abstract, government officials have used their authority to obtain new offices. Governors have appointed themselves to fill Senate vacancies. As best as I can recall, these governors also resigned from their state position to avoid dual-office holding. But such a resignation was not required by the Constitution. Perhaps a related issue occurred during the impeachme
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