A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to provide 30 days’ notice before any demolition work takes place at the Kennedy Center. The ruling came less than a day after President Trump said the performing arts complex could be “ripped down,” while photographs showed him reviewing a document titled “Kennedy Center Demolished.”
Before Trump made those remarks, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said Wednesday that “nothing is being demolished” at the Washington performing arts institution.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also directed the Justice Department to submit a detailed report by next Wednesday addressing the center’s current “temporary closure” and emergency repairs. The issues were outlined in court filings by Kennedy Center Executive Director Matt Floca.
According to Justice Department documents filed Thursday, the closure is expected to last one week, “unless extended” to deal with safety concerns.
In a declaration submitted before Cooper issued his ruling, Floca said that “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration … necessitated a temporary closure of most public spaces in the main building.” In an email sent to Kennedy Center employees and filed with the court, Floca said any extension would be considered one week at a time.
“To be clear, this is not a decision to effectuate the Board’s separate vote to close the building for renovation,” Floca wrote. “It is a distinct decision by management to address imminent life-safety risks pending the Court’s ruling on that vote.”
Cooper separately rejected an emergency-hearing request from Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board who sued last year to block Trump’s changes at the institution. Beatty had described the closure as unlawful.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Beatty argued that the unexplained closure could signal plans to make public access impossible for an extended period. She said officials might even demolish public access routes, allowing them to sidestep the court’s authority through a fait accompli.
Beatty’s filing also cited a witness who allegedly saw a forklift repeatedly strike the building’s pillars.
Fencing was put up around the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, adding to the concerns surrounding the site’s closure and planned renovations.
Roma Davari, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, told “Real America’s Voice” Wednesday evening that “nothing is being demolished.” She urged the public to disregard media reports suggesting otherwise, saying no such plan had come from the institution.
Thursday’s order is the newest development in the broader legal dispute over Trump’s plans for the Kennedy Center and his vision for its future renovation.
On Tuesday, Cooper ruled that Trump’s name could not be added to the building after the center’s board made a second attempt to do so. The judge wrote that officials “cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” adding that the board’s resolution violated both a federal court order and a law enacted by Congress.
Soon after that ruling, the board—now composed largely of Trump allies—voted to shut the center for renovations, according to a source. Congress appropriated more than $250 million last year for restoration work. Cooper is overseeing the case and must determine whether the board’s vote was lawful, but he has not yet issued a decision.
Trump reiterated Wednesday night that if he helped secure funding for the Kennedy Center’s restoration, his administration should receive recognition. Without that support, he suggested, the center’s future could be uncertain.
“So for the Trump administration, for me, to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it, or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” Trump said. “Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”
While aboard Air Force One on Wednesday night, Trump was photographed examining a document bearing the words “Kennedy Center Demolished” as he returned from a rally in North Carolina. The image was later submitted as evidence in Beatty’s emergency motion.
Brendan Smialowski /AFP via Getty Images
Opened in 1971, the Kennedy Center serves as the nation’s cultural hub and is the official “living memorial” to President John F. Kennedy.
