It is the picture that has Washington in its latest uproar.
Late Wednesday night, photojournalists captured images through the windows of Air Force One that showed President Trump reviewing a large poster board with what looked like a rendering of a construction site beneath three very visible words: “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
The photos raise many questions that the White House has so far refused to answer. Roma Daravi, the Trump-allied spokesperson for the Kennedy Center, isn’t talking either.
There is one other person captured clearly in the images of Mr. Trump reviewing the demolition poster board plan: Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist who is the nation’s top housing official (he also did a stint this term as the acting director of national intelligence).
The photos have already been incorporated into a previously filed lawsuit over the fate of the Kennedy Center, which closed this week after a disastrous year and a half under Mr. Trump’s stewardship that saw plummeting ticket sales and a talent exodus.
The lawsuit was filed by Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, who is suing the Kennedy Center as a board member. In federal court, she has objected to the closure of the center this week for what center officials say are severe safety concerns over fallen ceiling plaster. In a filing on Thursday, her lawyers expressed alarm about the photos and asked the judge to make “crystal clear” that officials could not just demolish the center.
The filing also made note of the president’s recent comments that he will withhold funding for much-needed renovations to the building, essentially condemning it, if he is not allowed to add his name to the face of it.
Earlier on Wednesday, before Mr. Trump boarded the plane, he told reporters in North Carolina: “I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”
Another possibility: Did Mr. Trump mean for the public to see him doing this on Wednesday night? Why put secret demolition plans on such a large poster board, spelling out the word “DEMOLISHED” in all caps in large red type, and then study those plans next to a window on a tarmac crawling with photographers with long lenses who are there to photograph him specifically?
After he disembarked, the president waved to the press, turned and walked away. He did not take any questions.
Julia Jacobs contributed reporting.
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