Kennedy Center Board Votes to Shut Down Venue Amid Legal Battle Over Renaming

The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees has voted to close the national performing arts center for two years, due to severe structural hazards and mounting financial pressures. The decision came shortly after a federal court blocked plans to add President Donald Trump's name back to the historic building.

The board's vote marks its third attempt since February to shut down the complex for renovations. However, the venue must remain open under an existing court injunction while a lawsuit challenging the closures continues.

The board's decision followed a turbulent virtual meeting where President Trump, who serves as board chairman, called in to confront board member and Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty. Sources familiar with the exchange described a heated argument between the two regarding the center's management and legal challenges.

According to sources, Trump criticized Beatty for pursuing court actions that halted modifications, while Beatty countered that the administration's policies had driven the institution into deep debt. Speaking on CNN, Beatty said that Trump "threw a tantrum", and added that Trump made the argument "personal" and warned she would be held "personally responsible" if structural issues caused injury at the venue. 

Beatty reiterated her commitment to challenging the board's plans:

"We will go back to court as much as we need to, because what he is proposing is unlawful and he just shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it".

The meeting took place shortly after US District Judge Christopher Cooper issued a decision halting plans to affix inscriptions crediting Trump with restoring the venue or designating the grounds as President Donald J. Trump Plaza. 

In his order, Cooper wrote:

"Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing."

Cooper noted that the proposed modifications "bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted" and emphasized that lawmakers specifically established the venue as a memorial for President John F. Kennedy "and no one else, at the Center bearing his name", adding that federal law restricts donor recognitions to "discrete (and discreet) areas, so as not to detract from the Center’s function as an ongoing memorial to President Kennedy. The current Board’s apparent disagreement with that approach does not change the law".

The administration filed an appeal against the ruling with the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday evening. Roma Daravi, vice president for public relations at the Kennedy Center, affirmed the center's intentions to "move forward with recognizing Chairman President Trump’s historic contributions to the revitalization of America’s Cultural Center."

Following the vote, Trump addressed the institution's future on social media, linking the planned overhaul directly to the resolution of the legal dispute over the venue's designation. 

Writing on Truth Social, Trump noted that "for safety reasons" the center would close, but emphasized that "the closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name".

He warned that if the court issues a ruling that "is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place."

Addressing the venue's financial status, Trump stated he had raised $17 million that was deposited "to keep it afloat" while saying that the venue is in a "virtual state of collapse" and warned that it was "destined to doom" without judicial approval. Meanwhile, Congress has allocated over $250 million for capital improvements.

Internal filings reveal severe financial distress at the organization. A draft resolution prepared for the board stated that the venue was in a "dire financial position" and facing a "precarious fiscal position" where it would be unable to meet payroll or maintain standard contracts "within a matter of weeks".

On Tuesday, Donna Kauranen, the center's chief financial officer who was appointed in early 2025, resigned from her position.

Board leadership and facility directors maintain that the main building is "unsafe for continued occupancy, and anticipate further risk to the public and employees if the building is not immediately closed and renovations begun," pointing to a recent partial ceiling collapse in the Grand Foyer.

On the other hand, legal counsel for Representative Beatty, including Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, praised the court's intervention, stating that "Legal sanity has once again prevailed over Trump’s vanity."

Beatty argued that the administration's actions contributed to falling ticket sales, performance cancellations, and the departure of resident groups like the Washington National Opera, stating that Trump "only cares about the Kennedy Center for his vanity".

"That is wrong and it is a breach of his fiduciary duty as a trustee. Congress established the Kennedy Center as a living memorial to President Kennedy, and I am proud to defend this cherished institution."

Beatty added in a statement: "The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else. But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial."

"This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop".

The Department of Justice is expected to request the federal court to lift the order prohibiting the closure, while Beatty's legal team plans to argue that necessary repairs can proceed without shutting down the facility entirely.