Kennedy Center Votes To Close As Judge Accuses Trump Of 'Games' Over Name

Drama over the future of the Kennedy Center ratcheted up on Tuesday with a judge’s terse ruling and a vote to close the beloved performing arts venue, all while President Donald Trump pressured the courts to side with him or risk leaving the building shuttered indefinitely.

The Kennedy Center’s board voted to close the center due to financial issues and the ongoing name dispute, The Associated Press reported. Trump confirmed the move in a Truth Social post, claiming the closure was due to “Safety reasons.”

“The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name,” Trump wrote.

“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” he added.

Earlier in the day, a federal judge had smacked down the latest efforts to plaster Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, stating that adding it would violate an earlier court ruling and the will of Congress.

Judge Christopher R. Cooper accused the president and his allies of “linguistic gymnastics” and “play[ing] word games” and in clear defiance of “common sense.”

Cooper also suggested that, while Trump’s allies argued in court filings that adding Trump’s name was necessary to prevent the center from falling into ruin, the opposite appeared to be true in practice, as artists pulled out of performances in protest of the president’s stunt.

The judge said that the Kennedy Center board, which Trump packed with loyalists, cannot install Trump’s name on the front facade, nor can they christen the grounds of the performing arts venue “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

The board voted last month to add to the building, right below “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” the words “restored and renovated by” in small font and, below that, in font matching the size of Kennedy’s name, “President Donald J. Trump.”

Cooper sided Tuesday with Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who brought the suit last year in opposition to Trump’s changes.

He argued that Trump’s allies were bending over backwards to avoid characterizing the additions as a type of “memorial,” using instead words like “recognition,” “plaque,” “testimonial” and “acknowledgment,” seeing as the Center’s governing statute says no additional memorials can be installed there.

“But common sense dictates that the words ‘renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump’ establish a memorial. Defendants themselves define a ‘memorial’ as ‘anything meant to help people remember some person or event, as a statute, holiday, etc.,’” the judge said.

Later, he wrote that “[l]inguistic gymnastics cannot extricate the Kennedy Center’s Board from an operative judicial order or the governing statute it was designed to enforce.”

A federal performing arts venue was established by Congress in 1958, and renamed in honor of President John F. Kennedy, a great supporter of the arts, in the wake of his 1963 assassination.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote.

If a particular fundraising goal is met in the future, the center’s board also planned to add another couple of lines to the front facade: “endowed by” in small font and then “The Trump Kennedy Center Fund” in larger font. Cooper said that it was premature of him to address that line before the $100 million goal was met.

The center’s facade has been partially covered for months as the lawsuit about Trump’s name played out in the courts.

Trump said in his Truth Social post that he would pursue an “expedited appeal.”