Kennedy Center Board Votes to Close the Building Amid Fight Over Trump’s Name

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to temporarily close the Washington landmark, citing finances and structural repairs, PBS News reported. The vote came as a federal judge blocked the board from putting President Donald Trump’s name on the building, setting up a fight over whether the center can be renovated at all.

Trump chairs the board. A draft resolution would close the entire building until 2028, PBS reported, but the closure is not immediate: Judge Cooper must approve it, and a source told PBS that he likely will not allow it until discovery is complete. The board cited a ceiling collapse in early September, shown in a video, as a hazard, and also pointed to plummeting ticket sales and warned that the center is near bankruptcy. Critics argue that partial renovations could let performances continue.

The judge, in his ruling, wrote that “defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump” and said such memorials require congressional approval, PBS reported. He also blocked two proposals: inscribing “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump” on the front, and renaming the plaza after Trump. Trump’s name had already been removed from the facade, though a tarp remains.

Trump has linked the building’s future to the name. On Truth Social, he wrote that renovation “will not take place” if the ruling stands, PBS reported. NBC News reported that Trump shared security video of part of the ceiling collapsing after storms, and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called for the building to be “closed and reconstructed.” NBC said all ten naming options before the board include Trump’s name, even though a federal judge had ordered it removed.

Justice Department lawyers suggested in a filing that the center may have to be demolished if Trump’s name is not attached, NBC reported.

The meeting was tense. PBS said Trump, the board’s chair, had a heated exchange with Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat who sits on the board and has led efforts to keep his name off the building; her counsel said in a statement that Trump verbally berated her, a claim PBS reported but did not independently confirm. The Kennedy Center did not respond to PBS’s request for comment before broadcast.

The board’s own draft resolution, released the day before the vote, described infrastructure and financial problems at the center. Critics noted the building has been renovated before and that a partial closure could let performances continue. The legal question of who can name a federal memorial, and the practical one of whether an aging building can be fixed while it is being fought over, now sit with the courts, and Judge Cooper, who has handled the dispute since May, has the final say on any closure.