Kennedy Center board warns of bankruptcy unless Trump’s name returns to building

The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, whose members were all appointed by President Donald Trump, told a federal court this month that the performing arts institution faces “certain fiscal collapse” unless his name is restored to the building’s exterior.

A 57-page draft resolution obtained through the filing projects the center will bring in only $124 million of a $220 million budget this year, leaving a $23 million shortfall even after spending cuts, according to a report from SAN. Officials warned the center could be unable to make payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts within weeks.

The resolution lays out ten separate options for adding Trump’s name to signage on the building, SAN reported. Drafted inscriptions include “Renovation, Restoration and Endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” and language crediting the center as “renovated, restored, and sustained through the generosity of President Donald J. Trump.” The resolution states that “without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” according to WTOP’s account of the filing.

Trump has chaired the Kennedy Center’s board since he replaced its previous members earlier in his term. He has offered to help raise funds for the center’s renovation on the condition that his name is attached to it, SAN reported.

The board’s push for naming rights follows an earlier attempt to rename the building that a federal judge already found went beyond the board’s authority, since Congress created the Kennedy Center as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy. A federal judge ruled in May that Trump’s name had to be removed from the building because it was added without the required congressional authorization, according to Daily Kos. That underlying lawsuit remains active, with a status conference scheduled before the same judge on Tuesday, according to SAN.

Attorneys Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, who have opposed the board’s earlier naming attempts, called the new resolution “the definition of insanity” and said it marked the third attempt to rename the building, according to Daily Kos. They said the board was “taking the Center hostage” by tying its fundraising future to a threatened closure.

Since Trump’s board took control of the Kennedy Center, artists have withdrawn from scheduled performances, some donors have stopped contributing and membership has declined, Daily Kos reported. The National Symphony Orchestra, the center’s resident orchestra, left the building for outside venues for the first time since the Kennedy Center opened in 1971, according to the outlet.

Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board by virtue of her congressional seat, filed her own documents alerting the court to the board’s pending proposal, according to WTOP. Beatty disputed the board’s characterization of the building as unsafe, saying the resolution had misrepresented findings from an outside consulting group.

The Kennedy Center’s board scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday to vote on the naming resolution, the same day as the court status conference, SAN reported. The board could approve immediate closure of the main building as part of that vote.

The REACH, the center’s newer annex building, would remain open regardless of the board’s vote, with performances originally scheduled for the main building relocated to other venues, according to the resolution cited by SAN.