President Trump is set to convene the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday to vote on plans to close the institution for renovations starting on July 6, according to an internal meeting agenda obtained by The New York Times.
The agenda for the meeting indicates that the president intends to move quickly to clear what he announced in February would be a two-year closure to transform the center.
The document was shared with the trustees late on Sunday evening after a federal judge ordered that details be shared with Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, who had sued over her right to participate as an ex officio member of the board. Ms. Beatty had argued that after the president purged much of the board and took over as its chairman, he was now seeking to muscle through changes that could include rebuilding the Kennedy Center to his own liking.
After an emergency hearing on Friday, the judge, Christopher R. Cooper of Federal District Court in Washington, ruled on Saturday that the board could not conceal certain details about the upcoming meeting or prevent Ms. Beatty from appearing to voice her opposition. In a carefully tailored order, he required that the board share budgets and other documents along with whatever decisions had been reached about the content of the meeting set for Monday.
Despite Judge Cooper’s ruling granting Ms. Beatty an opportunity to participate in the meeting and register her opposition, he stopped short of ordering that she be allowed to cast a vote on any proposals. Her lawyers have signaled that they intend to challenge the closure, the addition of Mr. Trump’s name to the building and other major changes, but Judge Cooper postponed a decision on those issues until after the meeting.
In addition to the vote on the closure, the agenda lists remarks by the president and by Richard Grenell, who had been serving as the organization’s president until Mr. Trump announced last week that he would step down. It also mentions a resolution that appears to reference the separation of the Washington National Opera from the center.
But beyond providing confirmation that Mr. Trump indeed intends to temporarily shutter a cultural institution in the nation’s capital, the documents provided little clarity about plans for the Kennedy Center.
In Ms. Beatty’s lawsuit, her lawyers had pressed for clarity about a social media post in February in which Mr. Trump professed to have completed a “one year review,” taking input from “Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions” and others to help decide whether to make incremental changes to the building or close it for a bigger renovation.
But there was little indication from the materials circulated on Sunday that such a thorough review had taken place. Other files sent along with the meeting agenda included reports about the health of the building from 2021 and 2022 and a new contracting policy set in November.
“These inadequate documents prove that there is absolutely no basis to shutter this precious living memorial and beloved institution,” Ms. Beatty said in a statement. “It certainly looks like President Trump is shutting down the center because he is embarrassed that ticket sales are down and artists are fleeing since his illegal renaming.”
Judge Cooper acknowledged in his order that everything might not have been determined yet regarding Mr. Trump’s plans for the building, and that some documents that the judge ordered the organization to share might not yet exist. Representatives for Ms. Beatty declined to comment on what materials had been provided to her or if they went beyond what was sent to the wider board.
More than a dozen members of Congress, as well as the secretary of state and the mayor of Washington, D.C., also sit as ex officio members under the federal law that established the Kennedy Center. The files appeared to have been sent to the board less than 16 hours before the meeting.
It was not immediately clear whether the documents fully satisfied the list of items Judge Cooper had ordered to be provided to Ms. Beatty.
Before the ruling on Saturday, her lawyers had expressed concern that the center’s board meetings would turn into a “rubber stamp” for the president’s ideas. They told Judge Cooper that Ms. Beatty feared that the building, which was established by Congress as a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy, could be taken down at the same breakneck pace as the East Wing of the White House, which Mr. Trump demolished with little notice last year.
Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the federal courts, including the legal disputes over the Trump administration’s agenda.
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