Kennedy Center Warns of 'Death Spiral' without Trump's Name
A federal judge has set a hearing on the restored inscriptions for Thursday.
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Attorneys for the Kennedy Center have defended the board's decision to restore Donald Trump's name to the complex in three places, arguing in a new federal court filing that the recognition is essential to the institution's survival, Deadline reports.
Earlier this month, the board, which is chaired by Trump and dominated by his allies, voted for a resolution returning the president's name to the front facade of the building. Below the inscription reading "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," a second line would read "Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump." Once a $100 million threshold is met for an endowment, a third inscription would be added reading "Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund." The board also voted to rename the physical site and grounds on which the center sits as the "President Donald J. Trump Plaza."
In a filing submitted late Monday, the center's attorneys wrote that "the Board recognizes that President Trump's efforts and prestige provide the sole hope for the Center's financial survival, and structural renewal." They added that "without the prominent recognition of The Trump Administration, and President Trump's efforts, the donors will not contribute, and the Center will continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral."
The filing credits Trump with securing $258 million in federal funding for renovations as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last year, and states that he has "marshalled a new donor base to finance an endowment for the Center." The attorneys, led by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, further warned that without those efforts, "the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down," with a proposed replacement possibly taking the form of a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River.
New reporting complicates that argument. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that it had obtained financial documents showing ticket sales and fundraising collapsed after Trump's name was first added to the center in December, with internal projections from last spring on track to fall nearly $100 million short of revenue targets. Artists canceled performances following the name change. A Kennedy Center spokesperson blamed the shortfall on previous leadership, said the Trump name has helped attract new donors and said the fiscal 2027 budget is balanced.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) is challenging the inscriptions and installations, arguing that they violate a previous court order requiring the Kennedy Center to remove Trump from the institution's official name. In June, a crew removed lettering on the facade that had placed "The Donald J. Trump and" above "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," and a tarp was installed covering the facade and its original naming.
Beatty filed an emergency motion last week arguing that the restoration violates U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper's conclusion 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's unilateral say-so." The motion called the new naming "a transparent effort to rename the Center in President Trump's honor."
The center's attorneys countered that the resolution was "completely lawful," arguing the inscriptions do not constitute a "memorial" under any plausible reading of the statute and are in line with donor recognition at similar facilities. They also argued that renaming the plaza was legal because Congress authorized the board to "maintain and administer" the site, which they said includes the authority to name it. The attorneys additionally claimed that while Beatty voted against the resolution, she "explicitly stated that she had 'no objection'" to renaming the center's grounds after Trump.
Beatty's attorneys pushed back in a statement, saying she "voted no on the resolution and she is staunchly opposed to this latest illegality, including the unlawful effort to rename the plaza. She will refute their characterization of her comments in Court."
