Kennedy Center must give 30 days’ notice of demolition plans after Trump claimed it could be ‘ripped down’
DOJ says the institution will close ‘temporarily’ for repairs after the president publicly mentions its potential demolition
The Department of Justice insists that the Kennedy Center is only “temporarily” closing for seven days to address “advanced deterioration” after the institution’s Donald Trump-dominated board voted to shutter the building for repairs, fueling speculation that the president could try to demolish it altogether.
The board’s executive director and chief operating officer decided to temporarily close the Kennedy Center due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration ” of the building, according to government lawyers.
That decision from Matt Floca was “separate from any Board decision related to closure for ongoing renovations,” lawyers with the Justice Department wrote in court filings Thursday.
The venue’s closure may be “extended” after workers “assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration,” according to the Justice Department.
Thursday’s filing follows an extraordinary 24 hours for the living memorial to the assassinated former president, as workers installed fencing and orange barricades around the property while Trump publicly mulled whether to demolish the building entirely after courts blocked his attempts to rename it after himself.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Kennedy Center board member who is leading the legal battle against Trump’s efforts , has requested an emergency court hearing on the building’s closure, which her legal team says violates an injunction that was issued earlier this year.
She alerted Washington, D.C. Judge Christopher R. Cooper to Trump’s remarks on Wednesday night, telling reporters that the building “will end up being ripped down” unless the president is given “recognition” for his takeover of the memorial.
He later appeared to be reviewing a placard reading “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED” while sitting on Air Force One — images that Beatty’s legal team have now included in court filings.
“Given the emergency nature of this matter and Defendants’ 10 a.m. filing deadline for their response to Plaintiff’s motion, Plaintiff wanted to make sure the Court and Defendants are aware of this new information,” lawyers wrote.
Bill Pulte, Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and former Acting Director of National Intelligence, was aboard Air Force One when a Getty photographer captured images of the president reviewing the placard.
Pulte did not respond to a text message from The Independent asking for more information about the poster.
Judge Cooper is mulling whether to hold an emergency hearing on the institution’s closure, which will likely raise more questions about the president’s alleged plans to “demolish” the campus to make way for his own memorial.
Andrew Feinberg contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies