President Donald Trump has been in an ongoing legal battle to attach his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—and his Administration has suggested what could happen to the living memorial if he doesn’t get his way.
In a court filing, Justice Department lawyers on behalf of the Washington, D.C., memorial argued that, without Trump, the center—which they described as “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital”—faces “a financial and structural death spiral” that could eventually push it toward demolition.
“Without those efforts, 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,” the lawyers wrote.
The lawyers added that “such a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy, but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain.”
It appears to be the first explicit warning from Trump’s allies of potential demolition of the storied venue, which first opened its doors in 1971 in honor of the assassinated former President Kennedy. The venue, however, has undergone various updates, repairs, and expansions.
How the fight over the Kennedy Center escalated to demolition threats
At the start of Trump’s second term, he overhauled the center’s governing board and packed it with allies. That board voted in December last year to rename the venue as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” In February, he also ordered the center to close for two years to make way for renovations.
But in May, a judge ruled against the name change, citing powers that rest only in Congress, as well as the closure. The judge ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the venue. Earlier this month, the board voted to append Trump’s name to the center again, seemingly testing the court’s decision.
A Washington Post report found that ticket sales and fundraising for the center have plunged since Trump tried to add his name to the venue.
Critics sounded the alarm on the threat of demolishing the Kennedy Center, just one of the many ways Trump has been remaking the capital. As President, he demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom project costing hundreds of millions of dollars—a project with its own legal hurdles.
In a Tuesday statement, lawyers for Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the center’s board, called the Justice Department’s threat “unconscionable.”
“This is a not-so-subtle threat to demolish the Kennedy Center if the President doesn’t get his way,” attorneys Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky said. “This is unconscionable, it is unbecoming of the Department of Justice to even put this in a filing, and we will answer in court.”
A hearing on an emergency motion filed by Beatty seeking an injunction to block the latest attempt to add Trump’s name to the center is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday.
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