A photo of President Donald Trump reading a placard that appears to say “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED” landed in federal court early Thursday as new evidence.
Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) filed the image Thursday morning in a notice telling U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper that two new pieces of evidence had surfaced overnight.
“We updated the Court with the latest in Trump’s apparent moves to demolish the Kennedy Center,” Norm Eisen wrote on X. “The Court has ordered the government to say what the hell it is doing by 10 AM.”
It arrived hours before a deadline Cooper set for the Trump administration to explain why the Kennedy Center has been closed to the public since Wednesday.
The photo shows Trump in a red cap aboard Air Force One, seen through the plane’s windows, looking at a large white placard. Journalist Aaron Rupar posted it on X on Wednesday night as Trump landed at Joint Base Andrews.
“Separately, a photo has been circulated on social media depicting President Trump reading a placard on Air Force One that appears to read ‘Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED,’” Beatty’s lawyers wrote in the notice.
The other piece of evidence was Trump’s own account of the building’s future, which he gave to reporters Wednesday evening in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a clip posted on X.
“For the Trump administration, for me, to get involved and to take that on long term … I think the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” Trump said. “Frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close and then be ripped down.”
“Given the emergency nature of this matter and Defendants’ 10 a.m. filing deadline for their response to Plaintiff’s motion, Plaintiff wanted to make sure the Court and Defendants are aware of this new information,” the notice said.
The notice added to an emergency motion Beatty’s lawyers filed Wednesday, which accused the administration of shutting the Center in defiance of Cooper’s orders.
“No, we’re closed,” a security guard told Bridget Kennedy-Bailey, a staff member at the firm representing Beatty, when she tried to enter the building Wednesday morning, according to her sworn declaration.
When Kennedy-Bailey returned less than two hours later, black metal gates stood roughly 40 feet from the building, blocking every staircase and the main walkway, she wrote. Forklifts were bringing more. One struck the building’s pillars several times.
“It is possible Defendants intend to undertake immediate steps in order to make public access practically impossible for the foreseeable future, including by demolishing public avenues of access to the building, and thereby evade the Court’s order by fait accompli,” the motion said. The Latin phrase means a done deal.
Cooper’s May order already blocked the Center from closing, stopping the board of trustees from carrying out a March vote to shut the doors entirely during a renovation. It remains in force.
In a Tuesday ruling blocking the board from carving Trump’s name into the building and renaming the grounds the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” Cooper wrote that the government had twice warned the Center might “be required to be taken down.”
“Predictions of future actions by the Board in response to being told no therefore cannot concern the Court,” Cooper wrote.
Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi has blamed the building itself, writing on X that “compounding systemic infrastructure failures from decades of neglect” forced an immediate closure.
In February, Trump told reporters he had no plans to tear the building down. “We’re using the structure,” he said at the time, according to The Associated Press.
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