Kennedy Center Board Votes to Immediately Close Main Building
The Facts
- The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, all appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump, voted Tuesday to immediately close the main performing arts building in Washington, citing safety and funding concerns. Trump wrote that the vote was "almost" unanimous and "17 Million Dollars" that he has raised has been put into the center's account.
- The vote came hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board could not add Trump's name to the facade, writing that defendants "cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else" without Congress' approval. Trump wrote that if that ruling isn't overturned, "the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place."
- The board pointed to a partial ceiling collapse in the Grand Foyer earlier this month, saying that a construction consultant and the center's director consider the main building unsafe for continued occupancy. This was the third closure vote since February.
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The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
The Kennedy Center is falling apart, and the one president willing to fund and fix it got blocked by Democrats who care more about scrubbing his name off a wall than keeping the ceiling from falling on somebody's head. Now the building closes, the family whose name is on it won't put up a cent and no one will get to enjoy a revamped Kennedy Center.
Anti-Trump narrative
The Kennedy Center belongs to the American people, not to any one president's vanity. Holding a 60-year-old living memorial hostage until his name gets slapped on the building is petty extortion masquerading as generosity. This is just Trump's latest attack on a public institution to show exactly what happens when he doesn't get his way with a landmark.
