Judge orders Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes

By MATTHEW DALY Thu, September 17, 2026 at 8:54 PM UTC

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said his ruling would “avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events,” including the building’s sudden closure to the public on Wednesday.

Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, said he closed the iconic performing arts center temporarily due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration” of the aging building. The building will be closed for at least seven days to “assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration,” Floca said.

The temporary closure, which occurred without notice, is separate from a vote Tuesday by the Kennedy Center’s board to close the center indefinitely for repairs, Floca and other officials said. The closure was based on an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month, Floca said. The closure may be extended after evaluation next week, he added.

Trump said the Kennedy Center could be ‘ripped down’

Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, said Wednesday that his efforts to restore the aging building deserve recognition, “because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape.”

The announcement of the closure came in response to a court case filed by a Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee and sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the building’s “unlawful closing.”

Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, has led efforts to block Trump’s name from being added to the building. Beatty had a verbal confrontation with the Republican president Tuesday during a virtual board meeting.

Beatty's lawyers said in a court filing Thursday that the board members' “rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently. The facts before the Court are deeply concerning.”

Cooper denied a request by Beatty's legal team to hold a hearing to clarify the board's actions and intent. But he agreed to their request “to make crystal clear” that his order prohibits demolition of the building without 30 days’ notice.

The Trump-aligned board, chaired by the president, voted to close the center after Cooper blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.

Congress has allocated $257 million to cover the repairs, but Trump said they only would happen if the board was permitted to move forward with plans to add his name to the building.

Barbra Streisand calls the dispute ‘painful to witness’

On Thursday, Barbra Streisand, a Kennedy Center honoree in 2008, questioned the closing of the center for repairs and called the controversy surrounding its operation “galling and painful to witness.”

Of Trump’s attempts to add his name to the center, she said in a statement to The : “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”

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The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe Trump's name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also have been renamed in Trump’s honor.

All of those proposals were shot down Tuesday by Cooper, who ruled that nothing could happen “without Congress’s blessing.”

Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.

Streisand told AP she was deeply honored to be included in the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees, adding, “for me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”

Lawmaker warns of ‘massive backlash’ if Trump moves to demolish building

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers from both parties called the dispute an unnecessary distraction and said they hope the building will not be torn down.

“I’d be very, very surprised if that actually happened,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S. D.

Asked if Congress would try to stop it, Thune said, “I hope we won’t get to that point.”

Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Trump was “being selfish and is mad that they’re not putting his name on it.”

Trump does not seem to realize “how many people love and value both the memories of the Kennedy family as well as obviously of what the Kennedy Center means to this country,'' Gallego said. He predicted a “massive backlash” if Trump tries to demolish the building, as he did with the White House East Wing.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, called the dispute a “false crisis” and said, “worrying about what (the building) is named is kind of silly.”

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writers Glenn Gamboa in Cleveland and Mary Clare Jalonick and Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.

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Source: “AOL Breaking”