{"id":17130,"date":"2026-08-14T10:33:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17130"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:33:59","slug":"kennedy-center-board-votes-to-partially-close-arts-center-during-renovations-and-add-trumps-name-to-the-building-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17130","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center board votes to partially close arts center during renovations and add Trump\u2019s name to the building again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to partially close the iconic arts center for up to two years during renovations and to re-add President Donald Trump\u2019s name to the building\u2019s facade, according to a person who attended the virtual board meeting and a second person familiar with the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision would close the Kennedy Center\u2019s main building and keep a smaller addition, known as the Reach, open for some events in response to a May court order requiring the board to maintain the center as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an almost two-hour Zoom meeting, the board voted 20-3 to change the name of the building to \u201cThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump\u201d and the physical location to \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump Plaza.\u201d Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick proposed the name change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, who appointed himself chairman of the board last year, joined the call for several minutes, according to the source who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three people voting against it are the ex officio members from Congress, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio; Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court\u2019s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed,\u201d Beatty, who was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Kennedy Center\u2019s renaming, said in a statement. \u201cI will continue to fight for this treasured national monument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorneys for Beatty said in a statement that the new naming effort appears to defy a judge\u2019s ruling this year that the center\u2019s board does not have the authority to rename what was intended as a \u201cliving memorial\u201d for an assassinated president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA federal judge already rejected the board\u2019s unlawful attempt to rename the Kennedy Center, and told Donald Trump\u2019s handpicked board that its last closure vote was ill-informed and preordained. Today\u2019s vote is more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts,\u201d said the lawyers, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper\u2019s order in May, which temporarily blocked the Kennedy Center\u2019s planned closure last month, also asked that the board provide a financial plan to justify the decision to close it. Keeping the smaller venue open would allow ticket sales for some events, including performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, which is the Kennedy Center\u2019s chief tenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The orchestra has performed there since the early 1970s, when the center \u2014 conceived by Jaqueline Kennedy as a memorial to her slain husband \u2014 opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, under the baton of music director and principal conductor Giancarlo Noseda, it has been rising in stature \u2014 but its future is now uncertain because the Kennedy Center\u2019s Concert Hall will not be available. A search for other venues in the area has been underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kennedy Center\u2019s future has been in limbo for months as Trump moves to reshape the iconic art institution in his image, one of several major Washington renovation projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Trump named himself the Kennedy Center\u2019s chairman last year and filled its board with allies, the board voted unanimously in March to close the center for two years for renovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooper\u2019s order temporarily blocked the construction work and ordered that Trump\u2019s name be removed, which it was in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said the board could still ultimately close the center \u201cshould it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooper also found the board did not have the authority to rename the center or add a name to it without the approval of Congress, which initially named it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kennedy Center\u2019s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board\u2019s unilateral say-so,\u201d Cooper said in his May decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMay the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorization? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no. Nor can any other individual be memorialized on the front portico of the building. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to close the center and add Trump\u2019s name to the building has sparked outrage from the administration\u2019s critics, as well as members of the Kennedy family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, a grandnephew of the late president, said in a statement last year that the center \u201cis a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to partially close the iconic arts center for up to two years during renovations and to re-add President Donald Trump\u2019s name to the building\u2019s facade, according to a person who attended the virtual board meeting and a second person familiar with the meeting. The decision would close the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":17131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2672,2578,1948],"class_list":["post-17130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-board","tag-center","tag-kennedy"],"yoast_head":"\nKennedy Center board votes to partially close arts center during renovations and add Trump\u2019s name to the building again - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=17130\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kennedy Center board votes to partially close arts center during renovations and add Trump\u2019s name to the building again - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to partially close the iconic arts center for up to two years during renovations and to re-add President Donald Trump\u2019s name to the building\u2019s facade, according to a person who attended the virtual board meeting and a second person familiar with the meeting. 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