Board also votes again on $285 million renovation closure
The Kennedy Center’s board, which Trump chairs, voted to add the president’s name to the building’s plaza and is planning two inscriptions, after a federal judge ruled in May that the center had no authority to rebrand a venue Congress created to honor President John F. Kennedy, according to The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is set to hear arguments Thursday on whether to temporarily block the board from installing Trump’s name on the building. Installation work will not begin before Sept. 8, the Justice Department has told the court.
The board is planning to add an inscription below the Kennedy Center name that reads “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump.” A second inscription, reading “endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” will be added once the private endowment, created in June, has raised $100 million.
Trump’s name was first placed on the venue in December, when the board voted to rename it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Five months later, Cooper ruled the center had no authority to rebrand a building Congress named to honor Kennedy.
Only “The John F.” and part of the letter “K” are now visible on the front of the building. The rest of the Kennedy Center’s name is blocked by scaffolding wrapped in a white tarp that went up when the center was forced to take Trump’s name down.
In court papers, the Justice Department argues there is nothing in law that stops the board from naming the plaza or acknowledging major donors. It is Trump’s name that is drawing in donations, the department wrote, and without it “the Kennedy Center cannot be saved.”
The board also voted a second time to close the Kennedy Center for a $285 million two-year renovation project. The Justice Department says the venue is in disrepair and may need to be demolished if the improvements cannot go forward. The department has asked that a 163-page renovation plan, developed by the real-estate services and development company JLL, be kept sealed out of public view because it contains security details. According to a person familiar with the plans, the renovations include temporarily moving the center’s JFK gallery and its 3,000-pound bronze bust of Kennedy to another building on the property.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D., Ohio), a Kennedy Center board member who fought to have Trump’s name removed when it was first installed, argues the board is thumbing its nose at the judge and openly flouting the federal law that created the cultural-arts center to “honor President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone.”
Trump filled the board with his own appointees last year, declared an end to its “woke” programming and installed himself as chair. After Trump took over, the venue struggled to fill seats and artists began canceling scheduled performances. Trump then announced the building needed to close for repairs.