“The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund”?
What about “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Renovated, restored, and sustained through the generosity of President Donald J. Trump”?
The Trump-controlled board of trustees for the Washington, D.C., institution is set to vote on a new name for the memorial to the assassinated former president.
After a federal judge blocked Trump from renaming the venue after himself and then ordered workers to strip quickly-installed name plates from the building’s marble facade this summer, board members have come up with at least 10 more ways to stick Trump’s back name on there — including at least seven ways to put it on the building twice.
Board members are set to vote Tuesday on the changes — including a resolution that suggests Trump won’t “rescue” the Kennedy Center or provide any financial support at all without getting his name on it.
In May, District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Congress made it “crystal clear” that the building is only to be named after Kennedy, “and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial” based on a “unilateral say-so.”
The board now says the Kennedy Center “is in a dire financial position” and has “exhausted its fiscal resources” that could force its imminent closure — unless Trump can “step in and raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy during its much needed renovation.”
The Department of Justice has previously argued that the venue will rapidly deteriorate without the support of the president — who is the “sole hope” for its financial and structural survival, according to government lawyers. The building could even be demolished in the future if judges stops the re-branding plan, they wrote in court documents.
On Monday, lawyers for Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is leading the legal battle, alerted Cooper to the last-minute plans for Tuesday’s board meeting on the name change.
The 10 proposed new names for the Kennedy Center would add the following under “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” which is inscribed in large, heavy metal plates on the exterior:
- Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
- Renovation Restoration and Endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
- With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
- Renovation and Restoration directed by President Donald J. Trump and endowment provided by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
- A Legacy protected through the Generosity of President Donald J. Trump
- Renovated, restored, and sustained through the generosity of President Donald J. Trump
The board had previously proposed renaming the venue “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
Cooper heard arguments from both parties about the proposed change last month, with Beatty’s legal team arguing that the board is illegally flouting his order against sticking Trump’s name on the building with a “breathtaking act of defiance.”
Outside the courthouse last month, Beatty’s lawyer Nathaniel Zelinsky accused the Trump administration of “courting a constitutional crisis for one man’s vanity.”
A draft resolution proposed by the board claims that Delta Consulting Group considers the building “unsafe for continued occupancy,” but Delta has “expressly disclaimed providing any such opinion,” according to Beatty’s legal team.
The resolution also seeks to justify the closure by pointing to a recent leak that caused a portion of the ceiling plaster to detach, though Beatty’s lawyers argued that the building wasn’t forced to close after similar incidents in the past.
Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, called the ceiling incident “another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed.
“This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there’s no justification for further delays in restoring America’s cultural center,” Daravi said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the venue also claimed that it inherited “financial mismanagement” and a “falsified budget” and blamed declining ticket sale revenue on wider trends.
The Kennedy Center is already taking steps to remake the venue.
Earlier this month, workers abruptly dismantled the 24-foot-tall site-specific sculpture Blue from the late artist Joel Shapiro. Billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, the former chair of the Kennedy Center board who was fired by Trump last year, has since purchased the piece and plans to send it to the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery.
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