Kennedy Center board votes to add Trump inscription after court-ordered removal

The move sets the stage for a test of a judge's order that previously mandated Trump's name be removed.

The Kennedy Center board has proposed a new way to put President Donald Trump’s name back on the building.

In a twist, the board's latest plan calls for additional wording: "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ‌Arts voted on Thursday to add an inscription bearing President Donald Trump's name to the building's exterior,…

The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board first tried to close the Center in May, but that decision was blocked by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who argued that the board’s decision “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” On Thursday, the board voted again, this time deciding to close the center for two years so that they can renovate the building in President Trump’s image.Judge Cooper still has to review the board’s plan for the center’s closure, which they have until next week to provide.The board also voted to put Trump’s name back on the center, circumventing the law stating “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” by putting “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,” somewhere on the building. “This morning’s decision to close the Center and the surprise agenda item to put Donald Trump’s name back on the building was more of the same,” said Democratic Ohio Representative Joyce Beatty, who successfully sued the Center in May. “This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed. I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument.”This is just one of the many useless aesthetic overhauls that President Trump has taken on during his vastly unpopular second tenure—from the Reflecting Pool, to the East Wing of the White House, to the Ballroom. His takeover of the Kennedy Center, attacking it for being too “woke” did real damage to the institution, as ticket sales plummeted and the Center’s cultural legitimacy suffered. “My word: just think about how low his self esteem is that he needs this so badly? Most human beings would have felt the shame of all this,” journalist Chuck Todd wrote on X. “I know this isn’t a new take. But it doesn’t make it any less sad or pathetic.”

President Donald Trump's name was removed from the Washington, D.C., performing arts center in June as the result of a lawsuit by an Ohio congresswoman.