Donald Trump Says Kennedy Center Will Close Immediately And No Renovations Will Take Place Unless His Name Is Restored To Facade

The board of the Kennedy Center voted to immediately close the main part of the arts complex on Tuesday, with officials citing repair needs and financial woes.

The vote was for a resolution presented to the board on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the board’s actions. The resolution outlined the structural needs of the center and a recent incident in which a piece of the ceiling collapsed amid heavy rains.

Donald Trump, who serves as the board’s chairman, initially announced the closure plan in February. The board is dominated by members appointed by the president.

He posted on Truth Social on Tuesday, “The Board of The Kennedy Center today agreed, almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction.”

He wrote that he had raised $17 million for the Kennedy Center account to “keep it afloat.”

Major programming at the center largely ended in July, as the board had previously set that as the timeline to shutter the facility for two years for renovations, funding by a congressional appropriation of more than $250 million.

But Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio member of the board, challenged the closure plan, and a federal judge last spring ruled that the center’s board had to more fulling consider the impact of such an action before shuttering. In August, the board voted in favor of a plan to shut down the main complex but keep open The Reach, an extension that opened in 2019, for limited performances.

Earlier on Tuesday, the judge, Christopher Cooper, nixed a plan to return Trump’s name to the front facade of the complex, after earlier ordering it to be taken down. Cooper ruled that only Congress could approve the installation of a recognition for Trump in the front of the building or of a Donald J. Trump Plaza. He cited laws designating the center as a memorial to John F. Kennedy.

The center’s attorneys have argued that giving Trump such recognition is essential to raising money to bring the institution out of financial straits. They are appealing the judge’s initial decision.

In a draft resolution given to board members over the weekend, center officials said it was facing financial ruin, and the president had offered to “step in and raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy during its much needed renovation.” The resolution added that the board “is seeking to appropriately recognize and acknowledge President Trump for his well timed proffer of fiscal rescue. The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center.”

In his Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump wrote that the renovation and resconstruction “cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name. If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place. The attorneys from the DOJ will ask for an expedited appeal.”