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\n\tThe Trump administration is threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if it does not get its wish to close it for two years in order to renovate it. <\/p>\n
\n\tIn a Monday court filing, the administration describes the building as \u201cdangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit\u201d and argues that, absent its proposed renovation, the building \u201cwill be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site,\u201d noting that \u201csome\u201d unidentified people have \u201cfor many years\u201d proposed an outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSuch a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy,\u201d argues the administration in the filing, \u201cbut would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe filing, in US District Court for the District of Columbia, was submitted by Brett A. Shumate, assistant attorney general; Eric J. Hamilton, deputy assistant attorney general; and Brantley T. Mayers, counsel to the assistant attorney general.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe filing claims that Trump obtained $258 million in funding from Congress for capital restoration in 2025, as well as recruiting donors to finance an endowment. His \u201cefforts and prestige,\u201d Trump\u2019s lawyers write, \u201cprovide the sole hope for the Center\u2019s financial survival, and structural renewal,\u201d and without his invovelment, the Kennedy Center will \u201ccontinue to be in a financial and structural death spiral.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThey lawyers add that \u201cwithout the Trump administration, its people, and President Trump, the Center cannot survive, either structurally or financially.\u201d They say that the building is \u201cembarrassing to the Nation\u2019s Capital.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJoyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat in the House of Representatives and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, filed an emergency appeal in federal court on August 20, seeking to block the center from restoring president Donald Trump\u2019s name to the building. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe board had voted earlier this month to engrave the president\u2019s name on the venue\u2019s facade so that the signage read\u00a0\u201cThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.\u201d (It had previously added his name as part of the name of the facility.) Additionally, if the newly established Trump Kennedy Center Fund reaches $100 million, the board would approve a second inscription reading \u201cEndowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.\u201d They also wish to rename the site that contains the Center as \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump Plaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBeatty\u2019s counsel has described the board\u2019s actions as \u201cclear violations\u201d of a prior court order. The authors of the Monday filing say that Beatty is \u201cseemingly motivated by a partisan end to ensure the Kennedy Center does not succeed under President Trump\u2019s leadership.\u201d Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest filing.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe organization\u2019s board had voted in December 2025 to add Trump\u2019s name to the institution and to the signage on its facade, leading to a legal standoff in the courts between the Trump administration and historic preservationists. Any such change, legal experts warn, could violate an act of Congress designating the building as a memorial solely to honor assassinated president John F. Kennedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump installed himself as chairman of the organization\u2019s board a month after taking office for his second term. The board also includes ex\u2013Attorney General Pam Bondi (who represented Trump in his first impeachment trial), Fox host Laura Ingraham, White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and Trump adviser Susie Wiles.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn May, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board could not rename the institution, which Congress dedicated as a living memorial to Kennedy in 1964, and that any name change would require congressional approval. Cooper also found that the Kennedy Center board had acted unlawfully in approving a two-year closure for renovations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289824681.jpg?w=1024″] The Trump administration is threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if it does not get its wish to close it for two years in order to renovate it. In a Monday court filing, the administration describes the building as \u201cdangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit\u201d and argues that, absent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2113419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2113419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2113419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2113419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2113419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}