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WASHINGTON, United States: US President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to keep the Kennedy Center closed for good after a judge ruled his name cannot be added onto the famed arts institution\u2019s facade.<\/p>\n
Trump said his hand-picked board voted \u201calmost unanimously\u201d to shut the venue immediately for emergency renovations, just a few hours after the federal judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
But he warned the \u201cvery large and complex\u201d repairs at the building in Washington cannot begin until a higher court rules on whether the center can be renamed after himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the US Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,\u201d Trump said on his Truth Social network.<\/p>\n
The Kennedy Center said in a statement to AFP that the board\u2019s decision \u201creflects sound judgment and a clear prioritization of safety above all else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after beginning his second term, Republican Trump installed himself as chairman of the center, which is named in honor of late president John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who championed civil rights before he was assassinated in 1963.<\/p>\n
The board voted in December to call it the \u201cTrump-Kennedy\u201d Center and installed signage with his name on it.<\/p>\n
US federal judge Christopher Cooper previously ordered Trump\u2019s name removed from the exterior and overturned the board\u2019s decision to rename the institution.<\/p>\n
Cooper ruled on Tuesday that Trump\u2019s name cannot be added back, rebuking the center for trying to circumvent his earlier order.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimply put,\u201d wrote Cooper in his decision, the board \u201ccannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress\u2019s blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demolition threat<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump himself called into the board meeting and berated a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the board and filed the lawsuit that blocked its renaming, CNN reported.<\/p>\n The Kennedy Center takeover is one of several projects aimed at stamping Trump\u2019s brand on the US capital, including a triumphal arch and a half-billion dollar ballroom at the White House.<\/p>\n Workers removed Trump\u2019s name from the building in June, but scaffolding and tarps have remained ever since.<\/p>\n Last month, the board moved forward with a plan to add a new signage on the building that would read \u201crenovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper on Tuesday said that plan was in violation of his previous ruling.<\/p>\n Trump and his chosen leaders of the Kennedy Center have argued that its main building, which was constructed in the 1960s, is in a state of dangerous disrepair.<\/p>\n As evidence of the safety problems, the president pointed to a recent incident in which a piece of the ceiling tumbled to the ground following a storm.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Building were open, innocent people would have been killed,\u201d he wrote in a post on Truth Social before the judge\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n Last month, as part of court proceedings, the Trump administration warned that the center may need to be demolished, if its plans to renovate the building were blocked.<\/p>\n A host of artists canceled concerts at the venue in response to Trump\u2019s takeover, while US media has reported that Kennedy Center ticket sales have plummeted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n