Donald Trump has given the federal judiciary an ultimatum: Let him put his name on the Kennedy Center, or he won’t save it.
That threat came after a federal judge, Christopher Cooper, today blocked yet another effort to add the president’s name to the building. Moments later, Trump virtually joined a Kennedy Center board meeting, at which he slammed Cooper’s decision and lashed out at Representative Joyce Beatty—the ex officio board member challenging his overhaul of the institution in court—according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal proceedings.
Later, Trump posted on Truth Social that the center’s “Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name,” adding, “If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.”
After months defined by empty theaters and canceled shows, the Kennedy Center has become a shadow of the premier performance venue it was just over a year ago. A Washington Post report this week revealed that the center’s finances are on the brink of collapse and that it could face bankruptcy. But while the institution has diminished, its leaders—and Trump’s allies on the board—have continued to push his plans forward, repackaging their oft-repeated claim that the only way to save it from financial ruin ahead of a two-year renovation is to emblazon it with Trump’s name. The crisis at the Kennedy Center is entangled in a larger effort by Trump to control what Washington looks like—a fight that has taken on higher stakes as his administration evades federal procedures designed to protect historic places from the whims of any one president.
The immediate outcome of today’s events adds more confusion. General trustees voted in favor of closing the center, and two staffers told me that leaders subsequently announced through the building’s broadcast system that the Kennedy Center was closed to the public. It was unclear if that announcement meant that employees would also be barred from the premises, according to one of the staffers, both of whom spoke with me on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Cooper issued a preliminary injunction in May to temporarily block the center from closing; if he does not lift or amend that ruling, the announced closure will put the board in violation of the court’s orders.
[Read: Trump’s Kennedy Center shakedown]
“The Board’s decision today reflects sound judgment and a clear prioritization of safety above all else,” the center’s vice president for public relations, Roma Daravi, told me in a statement. “As the main building closes for urgent renovations—long overdue and desperately needed to protect the safety of patrons, artists and staff—the Center remains committed to pursuing a safe and efficient renovation through all legal means.” The White House referred me to Trump’s post when I asked for comment on this story.
Meanwhile, the latest evidence of trouble at the Kennedy Center is scattered on the velvet carpet in the Grand Foyer, after a portion of its ceiling collapsed during a storm on September 4. The incident, which did not result in any injuries, has become the primary example for leaders describing the building’s urgent needs—and, as Daravi put it, debate whether “decades of neglect and deferred maintenance” are to blame. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick doubled down last night, posting security footage of the moment the chunks of ceiling suddenly fell to the floor. “If a performance had been underway, patrons could have been killed,” he wrote. The rubble and the hole in the ceiling are still on full display, while signs, ropes, and a yellow cone caution people against entering the foyer.
The fallen ceiling has become a key image of the Kennedy Center’s crisis. Trump’s allies say it’s proof that the building’s troubles predate this administration, and can be resolved only by the appropriately recognized intervention of the president-as-master-builder. But to some who oppose his overhaul, the center’s loud publicization of the problem underscores the board’s eagerness—perhaps overeagerness—to shut down the building.
In a filing this week, Beatty’s team alleged that the center was citing the ceiling damage as justification for closure, but pointed out that a similar problem in 1977 was addressed without shutting down the center. (Beatty’s lawyers told the court that further discovery could show that mismanagement under Trump led to the institution’s insolvency.)
Either way, after the board’s latest vote to close, the next step is to wait and see if Cooper will allow it this time. It’s unclear if anything he heard today will persuade him—including a lengthy assessment of the building’s conditions that a real-estate firm prepared for the board—given his previous statement that the initial closure plans were “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” But a crumbling ceiling might just do the trick: During the hearing today, Cooper indicated that he would consider amending his preliminary injunction to authorize closure for urgent circumstances.
[Read: What I saw inside the Kennedy Center]
The other emergency—the money—is even messier. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Kennedy Center leaders are warning trustees of financial collapse within weeks, saying that the institution could soon be unable to make payroll or cover routine bills. The alarm follows an earlier Post report on internal financial records showing that the center could face a deficit of $23 million—even amid its drastic spending cuts this year.
To keep Trump’s plans for the center alive, the board has already appealed today’s ruling against adding his name to the facade, and Beatty revealed in a court filing to Cooper that leaders had been weighing 10 different ways in which Trump’s name could be added back to the center’s edifice. “The Board seeks to provide multiple options so that President Trump can be legally and appropriately recognized and acknowledged on the facade of the Kennedy Center so that he agrees to carry the burden of managing the renovation and provides the Center with a much required financial rescue,” a resolution that the board had prepared for this week read, though it was later dropped from the board’s agenda so trustees could focus exclusively on closure.
In his ruling today, Cooper reiterated the conclusion he had already reached four months ago. “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” he wrote, adding that the latest renaming plan “bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”
Trump’s reaction today to Cooper’s decision—both online and before the board—underscores the bargain that has defined his stewardship of the Kennedy Center. Its leaders say that it is nearing financial and structural collapse, and that Trump is uniquely capable of raising the money and overseeing the work to turn the institution around. Today’s hearing brought up new questions about those claims, including what bankruptcy would even mean for a charitable trust organization created by Congress. If its finances are truly as bad as leaders and reports say, the court might eventually need to consider placing the center under the control of an independent receiver. For now, the venue is trapped between self-inflicted crises and the conditions that have been attached to solving them. But saving the Kennedy Center may ultimately require something its leadership has gone out of its way to resist: separating the future of the institution from the wishes of the president.
The post The Kennedy Center Is Trump’s Hostage appeared first on The Atlantic.
