The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Thursday to inscribe President Donald Trump's name on the building, Democratic U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty said, setting up a potential clash with a federal judge who ordered the name removed.
"In its meeting today, the board voted to change the front of the building’s facade to read 'The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump,' and renamed the physical site 'the President Donald J. Trump Plaza,'" said Beatty, an ex officio member on the center's board.
The Kennedy Center did not immediately reply to a request for comment, though a second source with knowledge of the situation confirmed the board's decision.
Security keeps watch at the main entrance to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, the day when the center's board voted to inscribe onto the building “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,” in Washington.
“Under President Trump's bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world," White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said in a statement.
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The New York Times reported earlier in the day that the board passed a resolution "that the center desires to recognize and honor President Trump’s existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the center by all legal means."
The board, dominated by Trump appointees, also voted to close the Kennedy Center for two years, according to Beatty, who sued the Trump administration and the center over what she called an unlawful name change and the planned closure.
A man walks in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday in Washington.
The Trump administration in December added Trump’s name to the facade of the Kennedy Center. In May, a judge ordered Trump’s name to be removed, ruling that the Washington venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.
"The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the ruling, “and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so."
Cooper also said, however, that the board has "wide discretion" to make operational decisions about the Kennedy Center, including potentially closing it for renovations following a valid vote.
A federal appeals court last month denied the administration’s attempt to keep Trump’s name on the building while it pursues court action to restore it. Workers stripped Trump's name from the Kennedy Center in June.
The Trump administration argued that removing Trump's name would hurt fundraising and worsen the center's finances. The appeals court said those claims were not supported by specific facts or evidence.
