The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted on Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump's name to the building. In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.
A federal judge has twice said that can't happen without the approval of Congress. The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center's chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he'd given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.
Read moreDC's Kennedy Center faces bankruptcy, closure: media The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialise the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.” The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation's most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognise and celebrate the best in American arts and culture. The venue's leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building's main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.
"The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement. Read moreTrump raises prospect of demolishing iconic Kennedy Center But Trump's insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point – alienating many of the institution's longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks. The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump's second term bid to dramatically remake the nation's capital in his gilded tastes.
He's demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He's also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River. The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center's facade so it would read “The John F.
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