Rep. Joyce Beatty called it “outrageous” that it was necessary for “consistent judicial intervention to protect this historic institution from getting bulldozed”
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NEED TO KNOW
- The judge who barred the Kennedy Center from re-adding President Donald Trump’s name to the building has allowed the institution to remain closed for now
- On Thursday, Sept. 17, a lawmaker suing the administration asked the judge to weigh Trump’s threats to demolish the building entirely
- The Kennedy Center’s board, which Trump chairs, voted to shutter the institution for two years on Tuesday, Sept. 15
The judge who barred the Kennedy Center from re-adding President Donald Trump’s name to the building partially sided with the administration in court on Thursday, Sept. 17, and allowed the institution to remain closed for now.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper denied a request from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is an ex-officio member of the board, to hold an emergency hearing after the president’s hand-picked board of administration officials and allies voted to close the facility for two years on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Cooper did order the Trump administration to provide written notice 30 days in advance to Beatty and the other plaintiffs of any planned major renovations, “including but not limited to any ‘demolition’ of the Center’s main building.”
“It is simply outrageous that we have gotten to the point of consistent judicial intervention to protect this historic institution from getting bulldozed by the President,” Beatty said in a statement. “I will continue to fight for the rule of law and defend this memorial on behalf of the American people.”
Credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty
On Thursday morning, Beatty’s attorneys submitted new evidence in a court filing: an image captured by a news wire photographer of the president examining a poster on Air Force One that appeared to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
In that filing, the lawyers also referred Cooper to Trump’s comments on Wednesday, Sept. 17, that the performing arts venue would “end up being ripped down” if his name wasn’t put back on the building.
The D.C. federal judge also ordered the defendants to update the court on the temporary closure and its necessity by Sept. 23.
Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty
Beatty and her team heralded the ruling as a victory, even though the building was “currently inaccessible to the public during normal operating hours today” despite a federal court order barring Trump and the board from closing the facility.
The White House and the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday evening.
“For years, Democrats let the Kennedy Center rot, allowing water damage and crumbling infrastructure to turn a national treasure into a building in decay,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement to PEOPLE earlier in the day. “As President Trump said last night, without his intervention, The Kennedy Center will inevitably continue to decline.”
During the Tuesday board vote, Beatty accused Trump of throwing “a tantrum” and threatening to hold the Ohio Democrat “personally responsible” if someone was injured or killed by what the president has claimed are potentially fatal deteriorating conditions at the center.
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Ahead of the vote on Tuesday, Cooper issued a ruling effectively barring the board from adding Trump’s name back to the building, which the president says is a dealbreaker for him and has floated demolishing the Kennedy Center if he doesn’t succeed.
“For the Trump administration, for me to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” Trump said on Wednesday. “Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape.”
After Tuesday’s vote, Trump claimed in a Sept. 15 Truth Social post that “17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat.”
Congress previously appropriated over $250 million for renovations to the Kennedy Center in 2025.
The president added that if the courts’ decision on renaming the center after himself is a “negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court,” then the renovations of the Kennedy Center “will not take place.”
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