Left inset: President Donald Trump addresses guests in the White House East Room on July 16, 2026, in Washington (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP, File). Main image: The Kennedy Center’s facade remains covered as Trump presses ahead with efforts to add his name to the landmark, despite court challenges opposing the move. (Dominic Gwinn / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
The Kennedy Center could be facing a shutdown as soon as Tuesday amid warnings that the performing arts institution is nearing bankruptcy. Its leadership says it has a solution: moving forward with President Donald Trump’s name on the building after months of conflict surrounding the proposal.
Trump-appointed trustees are scheduled to meet early Tuesday afternoon after receiving “additional materials,” including what a Monday court filing described as “new putative reports” directly connecting a potential closure to the center’s severe financial problems. The notice was filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a trustee who has spearheaded legal efforts to stop the name change. Beatty was not appointed by Trump; she sits on the board because of her congressional position.
The material reportedly contains two proposed resolutions for the board to review.
One proposal would again call for the Kennedy Center to close, according to Beatty’s filing. The draft claims Delta Consulting Group found the main building “unsafe for continued occupancy,” although Delta explicitly denied issuing such an assessment. It also points to a recent leak that caused part of the ceiling plaster to fall, even though similar problems have apparently been repaired in the past without requiring the center to shut down.
The second proposal would once again direct officials to place Trump’s name on the center’s exterior. Trustees approved renaming the venue in December 2025, voting for the title “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Beatty’s notice says the resolution argues that the Kennedy Center’s finances are so unstable it may soon be unable to meet payroll or maintain routine service contracts. It also states that the board believes Trump may not provide oversight of the building’s renovation or spearhead a financial rescue unless he receives “appropriate recognition” through the name change.
The filing includes excerpts from a briefing packet that trustees circulated ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
In the packet, the board says the Kennedy Center has depleted its financial reserves and could be unable to cover employee pay and routine maintenance costs within weeks. While trustees continue to explore other ways to keep the institution operating, they say Trump has offered to raise the money needed to prevent bankruptcy during a long-awaited renovation.
Trustees further contend that Trump is unlikely to oversee the renovation or lead an effort to stabilize the center’s finances without having his name prominently recognized on the building. The board warns that a complete financial collapse could arrive within weeks.
Beatty says her legal team is ready to address the latest proposal at the upcoming hearing. The board is reportedly weighing 10 possible lines of text to display beneath the Kennedy Center’s name on the facade, including the following:
Option 1: Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 2: Renovation, restoration and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 3: With gratitude for support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 4: Renovation and restoration directed by President Donald J. Trump, with the endowment provided by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 5: Restoration and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and endowment provided by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 6: A Legacy protected through the Generosity of President Donald J. Trump
Option 7: Renovated, restored, and sustained through the generosity of President Donald J. Trump
Option 8: Renovation, oversight, and support provided by President Donald J. Trump
Option 9: Acknowledging the unwavering support of President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 10: Renovation, Restoration, and support by President Donald J. Trump
The Department of Justice has claimed that the Kennedy Center “is in terrible trouble” and dealing with a “crisis […] so acute that, without the Trump Administration, its people, and President Trump, the Center cannot survive, either structurally or financially.” Beatty urged a federal judge in late August not to drink the “cocktail of fabulous pronouncements and stunning inaccuracies” that the administration had offered about the center’s alleged “death spiral.”
The judge — U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee — ruled months ago that the board, of which Trump himself is a member and chairman, “overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center” after Trump. He ordered Trump’s name removed, and an appeals court upheld that ruling.
Trump has publicly blasted the jurist on Truth Social as “highly conflicted,” emphasizing he is married to one of former President Joe Biden’s attorneys.
The Washington Litigation Group, which is representing Beatty in her lawsuit to halt Trump’s shuttering of the Kennedy Center, put out a statement Monday saying the “constant effort” to add Trump’s name to the center’s facade is “the definition of insanity” and the third attempt to “deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man’s ego.”
The statement added, “Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way.”
Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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