By Bo Erickson and Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – The board of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts voted on Tuesday to shut down the center for repairs, a source familiar with the matter said, shortly after a federal judge blocked the center from adding President Donald Trump’s name to the building facade for a second time.
The center’s board of trustees, which is made up of Trump appointees with Trump himself serving as chairman, has said the iconic performing arts center is in dire need of immediate repairs and approved a plan backed by the president as part of his expansive campaign to remake America’s capital city.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump shared video of what was described as corrosion and deterioration around the building.
“We have already wasted more than 6 months ‘playing around’ in Court,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington issued an order temporarily halting the center’s latest proposal to put Trump’s name on the memorial to Kennedy, the U.S. president who was assassinated in 1963.
In addition, Cooper said the center’s board cannot proceed with plans to rename the campus where it sits the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
“Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’ blessing,” Cooper wrote.
The board has argued that adding Trump’s name in honor of his efforts was necessary to ensure his continued commitment to its survival.
“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,” the board wrote in a draft resolution ahead of the meeting.
Trump’s campaign to remake the center is part of his broader effort to leave his cultural and aesthetic mark on the U.S. capital, including a large new ballroom to replace the White House East Wing he ordered demolished, a troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and a planned “triumphal arch” near the nation’s main cemetery honoring its war dead.
Tuesday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, who serves on the center’s board by virtue of her position in Congress. Trump has told the center’s lawyers he plans to appeal the ruling, the source familiar with the matter said.
SECOND RULING FROM JUDGE
Cooper had previously ordered the center in May to remove Trump’s name from the building after the center changed its marble facade in December to read “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” At that time, Cooper also blocked the center from closing down, finding that the board had not adequately considered the consequences.
Workers stripped Trump’s name from the center in June and left the exterior masked by scaffolding and a white tarpaulin.
In a vote on August 13, the board signed off on the addition of an inscription honoring Trump and renaming the center’s plaza after Trump.
The 10 options for how the president’s inscription could be rendered included: “A Legacy protected through the Generosity of President Donald J. Trump” and “Renovation, Restoration, and support by President Donald J. Trump.”
The draft resolution also said the center’s finances are dire, and it will be unable to honor its payroll obligations or routine maintenance contracts “within a matter of weeks.”
After Trump began exerting more direct control over the Kennedy Center last year, artists canceled performances in protest, the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra were forced to find other venues, and revenue cratered.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson and Mike Scarcella in Washington; Writing by Joseph Ax; editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)
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