9 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 8 hours ago by Magical Realist.)
"The Kennedy Center’s board will consider closing its main building for two years — unless President Donald Trump helps rescue the institution from probable bankruptcy, a step he might be unwilling to take without structural recognition, according to draft resolutions introduced over the weekend by the board.
One proposed resolution calls for the building to close immediately, citing “additional water intrusion and deterioration” that caused a partial ceiling collapse in the Grand Foyer and sent debris falling approximately 60 feet. It says programming would continue at the REACH and other off-site venues while renovations are underway.
A second resolution says the Kennedy Center has exhausted its financial resources and could become unable to meet payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts “within a matter of weeks.” Trump, the resolution says, has offered to “step in and raise” the money necessary to prevent the center from entering bankruptcy during the renovation.
But the resolution suggests Trump’s willingness to lead fiscal rescue efforts may depend on the center publicly recognizing his role.
“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” the resolution says.
A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed resolution presents a number of options to add Trump’s name on the building’s exterior, including one labeled: “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The Kennedy Center board is set to meet Tuesday to consider the proposals.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member who is suing to prevent Trump’s name from being added to the center, introduced the draft resolutions into the federal court record in the Monday filing. She wrote that they had been submitted as draft board resolutions over the weekend and will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, noting in the federal court filing that they bear directly on her pending motion for emergency relief.
But the fact that the Ohio Democrat presented those resolutions to the court does not mean she agrees with their contents, per her counsel. Beatty’s attorneys argued that the board’s resolutions amounted to capitulation to the president, and they disputed the resolution’s claim that the Delta Consulting Group considers the building unsafe, saying the firm had declined to offer such an opinion.
“This constant effort to add Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center facade is the definition of insanity,” Beatty’s counsel, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, said in a statement to POLITICO.
“This is now the third attempt to deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man’s ego. Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way. This has to stop.”-------- https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/14...y-01074887
One proposed resolution calls for the building to close immediately, citing “additional water intrusion and deterioration” that caused a partial ceiling collapse in the Grand Foyer and sent debris falling approximately 60 feet. It says programming would continue at the REACH and other off-site venues while renovations are underway.
A second resolution says the Kennedy Center has exhausted its financial resources and could become unable to meet payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts “within a matter of weeks.” Trump, the resolution says, has offered to “step in and raise” the money necessary to prevent the center from entering bankruptcy during the renovation.
But the resolution suggests Trump’s willingness to lead fiscal rescue efforts may depend on the center publicly recognizing his role.
“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” the resolution says.
A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed resolution presents a number of options to add Trump’s name on the building’s exterior, including one labeled: “Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The Kennedy Center board is set to meet Tuesday to consider the proposals.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member who is suing to prevent Trump’s name from being added to the center, introduced the draft resolutions into the federal court record in the Monday filing. She wrote that they had been submitted as draft board resolutions over the weekend and will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, noting in the federal court filing that they bear directly on her pending motion for emergency relief.
But the fact that the Ohio Democrat presented those resolutions to the court does not mean she agrees with their contents, per her counsel. Beatty’s attorneys argued that the board’s resolutions amounted to capitulation to the president, and they disputed the resolution’s claim that the Delta Consulting Group considers the building unsafe, saying the firm had declined to offer such an opinion.
“This constant effort to add Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center facade is the definition of insanity,” Beatty’s counsel, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, said in a statement to POLITICO.
“This is now the third attempt to deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man’s ego. Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way. This has to stop.”-------- https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/14...y-01074887
