In its latest dramatic attempt to keep Donald Trump’s name on the building, the Department of Justice floated the idea of demolishing the Kennedy Center altogether. Government lawyers have repeatedly argued that the performing arts venue is falling into “financial ruin” and rapidly deteriorating in a state of “terminal decline” — and that the president is the “sole hope” for its financial and structural survival. Trump, with his “unrivaled expertise and experience in real estate and construction” and “prominence” as president to raise money for the venue, must be memorialized on the building’s marble facade — or, according to the Justice Department, the Kennedy Center will “deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down.” The Washington, D.C. landmark would need to be demolished, “with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years,” government lawyers wrote Monday night.
Kennedy, but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain,” they added. Trump’s “path of destruction knows no bounds [and] he will answer for it in court,” wrote Norm Eisen, who is on the legal team representing Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is leading the legal effort to prevent the changes.
It’s unclear how seriously the administration is actually considering such a consequential and irreversible course of action, but the government has increasingly invoked hyperbolic and ominous language in its desperate pleas to keep Trump’s name on the building. Monday’s apocalyptic court filing is the latest in a months-long legal battle to prevent the Trump administration from changing the name of the venue and closing it for several years as it undergoes Trump-ordered renovation projects. Trump’s name was removed from the building this summer after a federal judge ruled that Congress made it “crystal clear” that the memorial to President John F.
Kennedy is only to be named after the assassinated former president, “and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial” based on a “unilateral say-so.” Despite losing court battles to put his name on the building, the institution’s Trump-controlled board of trustees approved a legally questionable workaround this month to keep the president’s name on the facade without “naming” the venue after him. The board voted to close the venue for two years as part of a renovation plan that is still tied up in litigation. That initial plan included renaming the venue “The Donald J.
Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” But under the new resolution approved by the board, Trump’s name could re-appear on the building — twice. An inscription will read “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” — directly below Kennedy’s name.
The board also said the building could inscribe Trump’s name if the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund” reaches $100 million. Together, those changes could mean that the building will be named: The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts renovated and restored by President Donald J.
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