The Kennedy Center’s board voted Tuesday to immediately close for a two-year refurbishment, saying the building suffers from severe structural damage and poses a danger.
Still, President Trump said the renovation will not move forward unless the courts allow him to add his name to the iconic performing arts facility.
The moves came hours after a federal judge rejected the center’s latest attempt to do just that. Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee to the district court in the District of Columbia, said that by law the center can honor only former President John F. Kennedy and that adding Mr. Trump’s name anywhere on the building or grounds would be illegal.
“Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Judge Cooper wrote.
Mr. Trump vowed to seek an expedited appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, saying he is the linchpin of the renovations and deserves recognition for them.
“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of the Kennedy Center will not take place,” Mr. Trump, who is also the chairman of the center’s board, said on social media.
That the center needs repairs is not in doubt.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick shared a video Monday showing what was described as a 150-pound chunk of the ceiling in the grand foyer falling to the ground during off-hours.
Officials said the debris could have killed patrons or staff had it fallen while the center was open.
Center officials say the building has suffered from decades of water intrusion that has compromised the concrete and rusted the electrical infrastructure.
They said the two main theaters, the Opera House and the Eisenhower Theater, are configured so that it is impossible to keep one open while renovating the other, requiring a full shutdown.
“The board’s decision today reflects sound judgment and a clear prioritization of safety above all else,” said Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president for public relations.
Some programming is expected to shift to a smaller theater on the center’s grounds. Other offerings, such as National Symphony Orchestra performances and the Kennedy Center Honors, will continue at off-site locations.
Judge Cooper had blocked an earlier board vote that would have shut down the center on July 4. He ruled that the board failed to follow proper procedures and acted on insufficient information.
He declined Tuesday to order a halt to the new closure effort, instead urging both sides to try to reach an agreement.
However, he said he was skeptical of Mr. Trump’s claim that only he can raise the money needed to secure the center’s finances.
“In fact, evidence before the Court pointed in the opposite direction: The renaming of the Center coincided with declines in revenue and contributions, as artists canceled performances, the Washington National Opera ended its 50-year residency, and ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast dropped precipitously,” the judge wrote.
The Kennedy Center is part of Mr. Trump’s broader plans to remake parts of the nation’s capital.
He has demolished the White House East Wing, has plans to renovate the golf course at East Potomac Park, and has visions of a triumphal arch near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River from the Kennedy Center.
Yet his fondness for seeing his name on his projects has proved to be a sticking point for the Kennedy Center.
The center’s board had affixed Mr. Trump’s name to the facade in December, only to remove it after Judge Cooper’s first ruling.
The Trump-aligned board is now trying to circumvent that by proposing to add his name to a plaza and to add inscriptions crediting him with renovating and restoring the building.
Judge Cooper said Tuesday that those ideas all violate his orders.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, led the legal challenge to Mr. Trump and hailed the decision.
“President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial,” she said in a statement. “This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.