Trump spotted looking at ‘Kennedy Center DEMOLITION’ booklet as his pouting over name change grows
President Donald Trump has been photographed perusing a booklet apparently outlining the demolition of the Kennedy Center, just a day after the performing arts venue’s board voted to close it for repairs.
In a series of photos taken by Brendan Smialowski for the AFP and Getty, Trump can be seen through the window of Air Force One as he returned to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland Wednesday night after campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley in North Carolina.
Construction crews began erecting metal fences around the troubled center earlier Wednesday, following the decision by its largely pro-Trump board, which came after months of legal wrangling over the president’s frustrated attempts to have the venue renamed after himself.
A member of Ohio Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty’s legal team, challenging Trump’s rebranding push, duly reported in court filings that she had seen a forklift truck “run into and hit the pillars on the building several times.”
The incident, combined with the abrupt closure and installation of the barricades, has stoked fears that the president is not merely closing the building for necessary renovations but potentially about to demolish it altogether, an idea first floated by the Department of Justice this summer.
Rep. Beatty has called for an emergency court hearing to get to the bottom of the closure. District Judge Christopher Cooper has given the center until 10 a.m. Thursday to respond.
An all-staff email has meanwhile informed Kennedy Center employees the main building is now closed “effective immediately” for the next seven days “due to safety concerns.”
Heavy rainfall caused a section of ceiling plaster to fall 60 feet into the building’s Grand Foyer earlier this month, an accident in which no one was hurt but which did serve to add weight to the argument for the center’s urgent restoration.
Appearing on Real America’s Voice late Wednesday, Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, insisted the maintenance was much-needed and said the legal challenge was really about “stopping any work that is going to save this institution because they don’t want President Trump to get the credit for doing so.”
Trump first added his name to the center, which honors the assassinated 35th president John F Kennedy, in December last year, leading to a sharp decline in ticket sales for its events and artists pulling out of scheduled engagements on political grounds.
In May, Washington, D.C., Cooper ruled that Congress had made it “crystal clear” the venue was only intended to memorialize Kennedy and “cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial” based on a “unilateral say-so.”
He gave it until June 12 to strip the current president’s name from its exterior but workers only started to assemble scaffolding to reach the letters that afternoon. Trump’s name plates were not removed until the early hours of the following morning.
In the midst of the legal fight, the DOJ warned the center faced “financial ruin” without the current president’s name in place, saying donations made on the understanding it would celebrate Trump would have to be paid back.
Its board then voted on August 13 to reinstate Trump’s name and to close down for a two-year renovation, costing at least $250 million.
The closure was finally ordered this week, shortly after a draft resolution to the board was leaked that again stressed the prospect of “certain fiscal collapse” unless Trump’s name was restored to the edifice, also suggesting the president might be prepared to help with fundraising in exchange for “appropriate recognition.”
On Tuesday night, Rep. Beatty described being screamed at by Trump over the long-running disagreement during an appearance on MS NOW.
“He went into a tantrum,” she remembered. “I mean, let me just make it simple. It was the most unprofessional thing that I’ve ever witnessed.”
