The Kennedy Center board voted last week to put Donald J. Trump’s name back on the building’s facade and to rename the grounds President Donald J. Trump Plaza, a move that would restore the inscription after crews removed it overnight on June 13. The board said none of it will be put into place before Sept. 8.
A status report filed Wednesday with the U.S. district court in Washington put the dispute back in view just as the Washington, D.c. Trump Construction Projects around the Kennedy Center remain under a court-imposed pause. The filing confirmed that the front portico has been covered by a tarp since the name came down, and it laid out the board’s latest plan for the building and the site around it.
The new inscription would read The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump. If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reaches $100 million, it would be lengthened to include the line Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund. The board-approved measure also calls for the physical site and grounds to be named President Donald J. Trump Plaza, putting a broader stamp on the complex than the facade alone.
That plan lands in the shadow of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Chris Cooper, who found the board acted unlawfully when it put the president’s name on the building last year. The board voted to put the name back anyway. For Joyce Beatty, whose lawsuit was part of the joint court filing that discussed the tarp on the front of the building, the filing showed that the fight over the facade is still active even as the board tries to move ahead.
Government lawyers said the protective covering and scaffolding went up because of water testing and structural repairs to a roof overhang, and that one section was used to remove Trump’s name. They also said the tarp is staying up until the scope of any repairs to the marble facade, and any other needed repairs, is known. In other words, the covering is not just a leftover from the removal. It is tied to whether the marble was damaged and how much work remains before the front can be uncovered.
The board is described as being stacked with Trump allies and administration officials and chaired by Trump, which gives the vote its political weight as well as its legal risk. The same White House is also pressing ahead with a ballroom project while Trump fights in court over the remaking of the Kennedy Center. For now, the practical question is narrower than the politics: whether the marble repairs are minor enough to clear the tarp, or extensive enough to keep the front wrapped past Sept. 8 and into another round of court action.
