Kennedy Center Votes To Put Trump's Name On Building, Close For Renovations

Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times,

The John F. Kennedy Center’s board voted on Aug. 13 to close the venue for renovations and place President Donald Trump’s name on the building.

“In its meeting today, the board voted to change the front of the ​building’s facade to read ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated ⁠By President Donald J. Trump,‘ and renamed the physical site ’the President Donald J. Trump Plaza,’” said Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex ​officio member on the iconic performing arts center’s board.

The final decision, however, will be up to U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.

While the board voted to close the main building for renovations, the REACH, a separate building on the campus, will stay open for limited programming.

It is unclear how long the renovations will take. The Epoch Times has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment.

President Donald Trump announced in February that the Kennedy Center would be closed for a two-year renovation.

Cooper blocked the planned move on May 29 and ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the institution.

On June 11, the Trump administration appealed the ruling, only to be denied.

The Kennedy Center requested that the court give it more time to follow the order, citing that its management planned to present options to the board for a mid-July vote.

The choices included a full closure with no ongoing programming, a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the construction work, and executing “a highly limited series of phased closures” to fix the building’s most critical infrastructure needs while having a full slate of programming.

The venue claimed the court order “did not affirmatively require the board to reschedule programming that had previously been canceled or to seek new programming,” and did not stop the board from giving the green light for closing the building.

“Center management currently intends for the center and its building to maintain an operational model past the originally planned closure date of July 5,” the filing reads.

“That model, which the center is currently following, contemplates continued public access to the center’s public spaces and to the living memorial for President Kennedy.”

Trump implemented multiple changes to the Kennedy Center last year, including firing the board and its president, David Rubenstein, whom he said did not share his “vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture,” and renovating the institution, which he called “tired, broken, and dilapidated.”

Trump replaced the board with new appointees, alongside existing ex officio members designated by Congress. The new board then elected the president as chairman.

In a May 29 Truth Social post, after the court blocked the building’s planned two-year closure and renaming, Trump said the venue was originally scheduled to undergo “large-scale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance.”

The court ruling blocking the name change and closure was in response to a lawsuit brought by Beatty.