The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted to close the institution immediately for renovations, according to a source familiar with the decision. President Trump and his allies on the board have repeatedly warned that the performing arts center faces financial and physical deterioration without an intervention.
The vote came hours after a federal judge once again blocked the board — chaired by Mr. Trump and made up of Cabinet officials and political allies — from adding Mr. Trump’s name to the building. Mr. Trump had previously directed that his name be placed on the center.
“Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling.
Cooper issued the decision after the board voted in August to place the inscription “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump” beneath the Kennedy Center’s name on the building.
In December, the board voted to rename the venue “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” and added Mr. Trump’s name to its facade. Cooper ruled in May that the change violated the law and ordered its removal. He also barred the administration from shutting the center for renovations at that time.
Since Mr. Trump’s name was taken down, a tarp-covered scaffold has concealed the exterior wall bearing the Kennedy Center’s name.
Justice Department attorneys argued in court filings that the center’s “dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit” condition, combined with recent financial losses, has pushed the living memorial to President John F. Kennedy into a “financial and structural death spiral.” They said the facility must close to undergo renovations.
Congress approved $250 million for the renovation project last year.
In a Truth Social post published soon after Tuesday’s vote, Mr. Trump said construction would not begin until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules on the Justice Department’s appeal of Cooper’s earlier order blocking the initial renaming effort, which included Mr. Trump’s name.
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote. He added that he had raised $17 million in donations for the center to “keep it afloat.”
Mr. Trump did not identify the source of the donations, and it remains unclear where the money will be directed.
