Barbra Streisand declared that President Donald Trump’s “unchecked ego” is destroying the Kennedy Center as its fate lingers in doubt over proposed renovations.
Streisand issued her thoughts about the president in a lengthy post on her website. After recalling the Kennedy Center’s history as a way to honor President John F. Kennedy following his assassination, Streisand said that she found the Trump’s actions “galling” and “painful.”
When Donald Trump attempted to put his name alongside the late President Kennedy’s on the building’s entrance, the move was met with widespread opposition from artists and much of the public.
A federal judge subsequently ruled that the Kennedy Center’s name could not be changed without an act of Congress, and Trump’s name was removed from the building’s façade.
Yet the fight continued. After his name was removed, a humiliated Trump ordered a large tarp placed over the façade, where it remains today. The Trump-aligned board then relentlessly lobbied again to add his name, prompting another federal ruling that blocked their effort.
The Kennedy Center board voted to close it on Tuesday, alleging that its physical condition and finances were making day-to-day operations difficult. On Wednesday, the president said that the center could potentially be demolished.
“For the Trump administration, for me, to get involved, and to take on long term, and to carry it, or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” the president told reporters. “Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close, it will end up being ripped down.”
Trump’s name being included on the Kennedy Center has been an ongoing legal battle since last year, with a federal judge ruling in May of this year that the renaming must be approved by Congress.
In the same post, Streisand alleged that the proposed renovations were part of deeper ploy to put Trump’s name on the building, adding that it has fallen subject to “a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
“You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego,” she wrote.
“It is difficult not to think about what President Kennedy himself would have envisioned for the Center: not a monument frozen in time, but a living place where artists could challenge, inspire, provoke, and bring Americans together through the transformative power of the arts,” she added.
Streisand concluded her message with a call for Americans to vote in the upcoming midterms.