“If we don’t do that,” he said, “it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”
On Wednesday, President Trump was photographed aboard Air Force One looking at a large presentation board about the Kennedy Center.
Across the top, partially visible, were the words “KENNEDY CENTER DEMOLIS…”
The photograph does not show the rest of the word, who prepared the presentation, or what it proposed.
But just hours earlier, Trump had been asked about the Kennedy Center while speaking to reporters on the tarmac in North Carolina.
A federal judge had ruled the day before that Trump’s name could not be added to the Kennedy Center without approval from Congress, which had created it more than 50 years ago as the national memorial to President John F. Kennedy. Trump said his administration deserved recognition for repairing and financially supporting the Center.
“If we don’t do that,” he said, “it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”
That night, returning from North Carolina, he was photographed looking at that presentation board.
The next day, Thursday, lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Kennedy Center trustee who has been challenging the board’s actions in court, filed the photograph with Judge Christopher Cooper. He ordered the Kennedy Center to give the court 30 days’ notice before making any major physical change to the building, including demolition.
Trump has already proposed a 250-foot triumphal arch across the river from the Lincoln Memorial. The White House East Wing has been demolished for his new ballroom. His name was added to the Kennedy Center before a federal judge ordered it removed.
For centuries, rulers have left their mark on capital cities by building monuments, erecting statues, renaming landmarks, and sometimes tearing down what was there before.
Now, here in Washington, a federal judge has ordered 30 days’ notice before anyone tears down this monument.
