Judge Orders Trump Administration To Give 30 Days’ Notice Before Kennedy Center Demolition

Judge blocks demolition

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to give at least 30 days’ notice before any “demolition” at the Kennedy Center, after President Donald Trump warned the Washington DC performing arts venue could be “ripped down.” US District Judge Christopher Cooper also ordered a detailed report tied to the center’s “temporary closure” for emergency repairs and required written notice of any change to the scope of the project.

The dispute intensified after Trump was photographed aboard Air Force One looking at a placard that appeared to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED,” and the judge said his ruling would “avoid any confusion” given the “most recent events.” Kennedy Center executive director and chief operating officer Matt Floca said the building was closed due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration,” and the closure was to last at least seven days to assess severe deterioration in portions of the main building.

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Trump threatens closure

Trump said on Tuesday that the Kennedy Center will close its doors, potentially permanently, after a court ruled his name cannot be added to the exterior facade, and he said the board voted to close the building for “emergency and necessary restoration work.”

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump said the site would close immediately and added, “If the ruling is negative, and it should not be, and the Supreme Court has not overturned it, there will be no rebuilding and renovation at the Kennedy Center.”

The BBC reported that Trump argued the center would need his name to secure renovation funding, telling reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina, “if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down.”

The standoff also drew legal scrutiny from Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the center’s board, whose lawyers told the court that the board’s “rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext” to shut it down permanently.

Reporting for this sectionAl-Ra'i newspaperBBC

Artists and funding at risk

The Kennedy Center’s closure and the fight over its name have triggered public backlash from performers, with Barbra Streisand criticizing Trump’s “unbounded ego” and saying she was “infuriating and painful to witness what is happening to the Kennedy Center.”

Streisand’s statement also recalled that after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Congress passed a law designating the National Cultural Center as a living memorial, and she said the institution “solidified as one of the great cultural spaces in the United States.”

The BBC said Congress has allocated $257 million to cover repairs, while the Al-Ra'i newspaper reported that the center expected to raise about $124 million of the $220 million projected revenue and faced a shortfall of around $23 million even after cost-cutting.

In the legal arena, Reuters reported that Beatty’s filing argued the closure was “a recipe for defendants extending their shutdown forever and closing the Kennedy Center for the next two years — the very thing this court said they could not do without its permission,” as the board said the seven-day emergency closure was separate from larger renovation plans.

Reporting for this sectionEl Nuevo HeraldFOX 5 DC