Kennedy Center to close for renovations after judge blocks returning Trump’s name to landmark venue

Most of the Kennedy Center in the US capital, Washington, DC, will close for repairs following a board vote Tuesday, hours after a federal judge again blocked the landmark venue from being renamed after President Donald Trump.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” US District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.

Trump, in response to the ruling, said the $257 million (around €222.72 million) allocated by Congress for the repairs would only be released if the renaming was permitted to proceed — a condition federal courts have twice ruled cannot be met without Congressional approval.

Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.

The Justice Department has appealed the latest ruling.

Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.

The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialise the president at the Kennedy Center.

Fans worry about possible demolition

The developments have thrown into limbo the fate of one of the US's most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognise and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.

The venue’s leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building’s main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.

“The building is not currently built to last; the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.

But Trump’s insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution’s long-time supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.

The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump’s second-term bid to dramatically remake the US capital in his gilded tastes. He’s demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He’s also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.

The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, (approximately €86.66 million), another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honour.

There are concerns that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. According to a filing last month, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations.

Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished.