Kennedy Center board votes to close as judge blocks name change

The board of the Washington, D.C.-based John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to close on Tuesday over financial difficulties and a legal dispute over a proposal to add President Donald Trump’s name to the building.

Both Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took part in the discussion, according to a report by the Associated Press, citing an unnamed source close to the situation.

The news came even as a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a Tuesday order banning a proposal by the Kennedy Center’s board to inscribe President Donald Trump’s name on the building. The board’s proposal ignored a federal court order and illegally sidestepped congressional approval, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote.

The Kennedy Center’s name and proposed renovations remained hotly contested in court after Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, sued over a similar proposal by Trump last year. The center’s board, chaired by Trump, voted to inscribe “Renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” on the building. The board also voted that the Kennedy Center campus be renamed to “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

She petitioned the court for an emergency order to stop the board from enacting the resolutions approved last month. Cooper’s Tuesday order granted Beatty’s petition, noting that the board was legally barred from installing memorials to anyone at the Kennedy Center without congressional approval.

Has Trump responded to the ruling? Trump released a statement on Tuesday, characterizing Cooper as hostile and conflicted. Courtroom drama already wasted six months of renovations and the building appeared doomed, he wrote. The center lost hundreds of millions of dollars before he took over, and is in desperate need of renovations, he said. Trump said innocent people would be killed by what he described as the center’s run-down infrastructure, claiming that a ceiling collapse nearly hit an on-duty security guard.