The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted Thursday to add an inscription reading “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” beneath the venue’s main sign, according to a report from The New York Times.
The vote sets up a potential test of a federal judge’s order directing the performing arts center to strip Trump’s name from the building. The board’s resolution reportedly frames the inscription as an honor for bringing the center back “from the brink of disaster.”
At the same Thursday meeting, the board voted to proceed with a plan to close the main building for renovations while keeping the Reach – the center’s smaller campus building – open for limited programming and as a memorial to former President John F. Kennedy.
Trump has repeatedly pushed for the shutdown, calling the building “tired, broken, and dilapidated” in a social media post. A judge blocked an earlier closure decision this year, finding it had been made on a “one-sided presentation of information” without weighing the center’s statutory obligations.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center must remove Trump’s name from both physical and digital branding, writing that federal law “makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy” and that the authority to name the venue rests with Congress. Cooper also temporarily blocked a two-year renovation closure. The center is appealing.
The board – largely hand-picked by Trump, who was elected chairman last year – had voted to add his name to the venue after he vowed to combat what he characterized as “woke” programming.
Tarps and scaffolding have covered the majority of the building’s main sign since the early hours of June 13, when workers moved to comply with a court deadline to remove the letters.
