Trump warns closed Kennedy Center could be ‘ripped down’ as name fight explodes

BS BULLETIN:

President Trump says the Kennedy Center could ultimately close and be “ripped down” without his administration’s intervention.
The center’s main building has now closed after its board cited serious safety problems and approved an extensive renovation.
A federal judge has blocked Trump’s name from being placed back on the building without congressional approval, escalating the fight.

The battle over President Donald Trump’s name and the Kennedy Center has gone from signs and lawsuits to a warning that the famous Washington landmark itself could eventually come down.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that his administration deserves recognition for taking responsibility for rescuing and renovating the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Without that intervention, he said, the center’s future is bleak. “Frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close,” Trump said. “It’ll end up being ripped down.”

Trump argued that the Kennedy Center has been losing money and requires both a massive renovation and continued financial support after the work is completed.

The comments came one day after the Kennedy Center’s Trump-aligned board voted to immediately close most of the main building for renovations.

By Wednesday, the doors were closed and fencing was being erected around the complex.

Center officials say serious safety problems have developed inside the aging building.

A roughly 4-by-5-foot section of ceiling plaster fell about 60 feet into the Grand Foyer during a Sept. 4 storm, according to center officials. No one was injured.

Subsequent inspections identified additional water damage, corrosion and other structural and mechanical problems, according to materials presented to trustees.

Congress has allocated approximately $257 million for renovations.

But another fight is unfolding over Trump’s demand that his role in the project receive permanent recognition.

The Kennedy Center board previously approved placing Trump’s name on the building, but U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that such a memorial cannot be installed without congressional authorization.

“Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote in his latest ruling.

The Justice Department is appealing.

Trump has said the renovation cannot proceed as planned while the court prevents the center from recognizing him. “For me to go and fix it — I’m quite capable of fixing it — and then have to subsidize it for years to come,” Trump told reporters Wednesday, “I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition.”

The dispute became even more complicated after the building closed.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a Kennedy Center trustee who has challenged the Trump-led changes in court, filed an emergency motion arguing that officials may be violating Cooper’s previous order.

Cooper subsequently ordered Kennedy Center officials to explain the closure by Thursday morning and said he could hold another hearing if necessary.

Center management says the immediate shutdown is necessary because of “imminent life-safety risks.”

And hanging over all of it is the possibility that repairing the Kennedy Center may eventually give way to something considerably more dramatic.

Administration lawyers previously argued in court filings that without sufficient funding the deteriorating building could ultimately need to be demolished, with another venue potentially constructed on the site.

Now Trump himself is publicly raising that possibility.