Beatty Asks Judge to Rule Trump Cannot Demolish Kennedy Center
US Representative Joyce Beatty has asked a federal court to make it “crystal clear” that President Donald Trump cannot demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
The request was reported on 18 September and puts the future of the concert halls and theatres back in court. It followed the circulation of photographs taken through the windows of Air Force One. ARTnews
Those images showed Trump reviewing a poster headed “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED”, according to reporting published on 17 September. A separate report that day described Trump photographed on Wednesday night looking over a placard that appeared to include the same words. The New York Times
The photographs landed in the middle of a fast-moving legal fight. On 17 September, a federal judge denied Beatty’s request for an emergency hearing over the venue’s planned renovation. The same ruling required the government to give 30 days’ notice in connection with physical changes to the Kennedy Center. The Hill
A day earlier, Judge Cooper ordered the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from the building’s facade. The judge ruled that only Congress can change the Kennedy Center’s name. The judge also ordered the Trump administration to explain its closure plans for the venue. Reuters
The dispute goes back months. In March, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to allow Beatty to take part in a Kennedy Center demolition meeting and to produce information before that meeting. Beatty said at the time that no president has the authority to shut Congress out of the governance of the Kennedy Center, much less unilaterally rename or demolish it.
What makes this stand out for audiences is simple. The argument is not about one show or one season. It is about who gets to decide whether the doors stay open, what the building is called, and what can be knocked down.
