The Trump administration is threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and potentially replace it with an outdoor amphitheater unless Donald Trump’s name is prominently added to its exterior, giving him what they said would be appropriate “respect and dignity of acknowledgement” while he works “to save” it.
In a court filing on Monday, attorneys for his administration argue that the landmark performing arts center is in such disrepair it “cannot survive, either structurally or financially” without Trump’s help and credit.
“The building has become dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit. It is structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital,” the filing reads.
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It goes on to state that “without the prominent recognition of The Trump Administration, and President Trump’s efforts, the donors will not contribute, and the Center will continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral.”
It specifically requests an inscription on the front of the building, under the center’s name, reading: “Renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump.”
This would be followed with the phrase “endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” so long as an endowment established for the renovations reaches $100 million. The center’s “physical site and grounds” would also be named the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
The demand is in response to Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a former member of the center’s board of trustees, filing an emergency motion last week seeking to keep Trump’s name off the center, which was created by Congress to serve as a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy.
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A judge in May ruled that a decision by the center’s Trump-aligned board to add his name to its official title was unlawful, leading to his name’s removal from the building’s exterior in June.
While Monday’s filing doesn’t share evidence of the center’s alleged “death spiral,” Matthew Floca, who has served as the center’s chief operating officer since March 24, told a judge in April that extensive, two-year repair work was needed to the roof, electrical systems and columns due to water damage.
Floca pointed to a tour he gave to reporters that showcased some of the damage. Images of that tour, published on the Kennedy Center’s website, appear to show corroded steel, water-damaged electrical systems, and other structural damage to the ground and ceilings.
Courtesy of the Trump Kennedy Center
The repair work, which was approved in a meeting led by Trump, who is the center’s chairman, would cost about $250 million, Floca said. Trump has offered to cover this amount using $258 million he obtained from Congress for capital restoration. The center would be closed during the construction, Floca said.
As the Trump filing states, the center has been weathering a monthslong decline in ticket revenue and donations since the board voted in December to rename the center after Trump. That decline catastrophically plunged after the board added his name to the building’s facade, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing internal documents.
This continuous drop has put it on track to fall nearly $100 million short of its revenue target, the Post reported.