Kennedy Center board votes to close venue after judge blocks attempt to return Trump’s name to signage, Trump says renovation ‘will not take place’

The Kennedy Center is once again back in the news. Yesterday, a federal judge slapped down plans to return Donald Trump’s name to the signage, underlining once again that the institute cannot rename itself without congressional approval.

District Judge Christopher Cooper said, echoing previous rulings, that the Kennedy Center is there to honor President Kennedy, not Donald Trump: “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”

This came as the board decided that if they couldn’t officially add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, they would instead put up signs saying the venue was “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” and that they’d officially rename the grounds as the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

“His path of destruction knows no bounds”

In response to being told they can’t do that either, the Kennedy Center has taken its metaphorical ball and gone home. As per IB Times, hours after the ruling, the board voted to shut the venue for the foreseeable future, claiming the building is critically unsafe and that the Center is facing “certain fiscal collapse within weeks.”

This announcement came dramatically to those actually in the Center, as according to The New York Times, an emergency announcement was made over the PA system ordering the immediate evacuation of the building. Security then ushered those present from the building and prevented anyone from entering.

The reasoning for this is a supposed “deterioration” of the building, with the board specifically citing problems with water intrusion, corroded structural steel, and aging electrical systems. The move appears to be in line with Trump’s threats that the Kennedy Center may have to be completely demolished.

In late August, Trump said: “The ⁠Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to ​build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

All this has generated no small amount of controversy. Former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen took to X to say “his path of destruction knows no bounds & he will answer it in court” and Singer/songwriter Bill Madden compared Trump to “a toddler threatening to smash his toys unless he gets more candy.”

As of writing, it is unclear when or if the Kennedy Center will reopen. Even if it does, the board’s claims that the Center is so financially precarious as to be “within weeks” of being unable to make payroll or pay its bills leave its future uncertain.