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Trump Name, Two-Year Closure
The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board of trustees voted Thursday to partially close the iconic arts center for up to two years during renovations and to re-add President Donald Trump’s name to the building’s facade, according to NBC News and a person who attended a virtual board meeting.
“The decision would close the Kennedy Center’s main building while keeping a smaller addition, known as the Reach, open for some events”
NBC News said the board voted 20 to 3 after an almost two-hour Zoom meeting to change the name of the building to “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” and to change the physical location to “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
The vote came in response to a May court order requiring the board to maintain the center as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy, and CBS News reported the board also voted to close the center for two years.
CBS News said the board’s action was a second attempt to put Trump’s name on the outside of the building after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that renaming the center after both Kennedy and Trump violated the federal law that created the organization.
NPR reported the board also voted to put Trump’s name back on the center’s entry as “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,” while keeping The REACH, a 2019 addition, open for limited programming and as a memorial to John F. Kennedy.
Beatty Calls It Circumvention
Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democratic ex-officio board member, said the board’s move was hostile to the court’s ruling, telling reporters, “This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed,” and vowing, “I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument.”
NBC News reported that the three people voting against the renaming were the ex officio members from Congress: Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash.
CBS News said Beatty and her lawyers argued the board’s latest vote was “more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts,” after Cooper blocked the center’s planned closure and ordered that Trump’s name be removed.
In a statement quoted by NPR, Beatty said, “This morning's decision to close the center and the surprise agenda item to put Trump's name back on the building was more of the same.”
NPR also reported that the board meeting was held by Zoom and was not public, and that the decisions would be subject to the federal judge’s approval.
What’s at Risk Next
The board’s decisions set up further legal and operational consequences, with NBC News describing how Cooper’s May order temporarily blocked the planned closure and asked the board to provide a financial plan to justify closing the center.
“The $250 million project includes structural repairs, new marble floors, nearly $12 million in "acoustical improvements"”
NPR reported that the $250 million project includes structural repairs, new marble floors, nearly $12 million in “acoustical improvements,” and a plan to temporarily move the famed, eight-foot, bronze bust of Kennedy that sits in the center's main foyer.
NPR said the main campus would reopen in the summer of 2028, while the board’s decisions remain subject to the federal judge’s approval and the center’s closure plan is framed as a two-year major renovation plan.
The Guardian reported that the board voted “to close the Kennedy Center’s main building, while keeping a newer addition to the campus, known as the Reach, open for limited programming and to operate as an active memorial to John F Kennedy,” and said the decisions will be subject to approval by a U.S. federal judge.
Forbes reported that the board’s resolution directed officials to honor Trump for bringing the center back “from the brink of disaster,” and that the board’s actions are being treated as a test of a judge’s order to remove Trump’s name from the facade.
