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UPDATE: Shortly after federal U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled once again that President Donald Trump’s name could not be added to the exterior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts without congressional approval, Trump’s handpicked board of directors for the center voted on Tuesday to shut it down for the next two years for renovations, questionably asserting that the move was necessary to prevent the center from going bankrupt, sources with knowledge of the vote said.
The original Truthout article, detailing the dubious arguments made by the board (including how financial worries were in fact a direct result of Trump’s name being added to the exterior of the building), appears below:
Board members of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. have reportedly created a draft resolution that warns of “certain fiscal collapse within weeks,” claiming that the only way to remedy their current crisis is to place President Donald Trump’s name back on the building.
During the first month of his second term in office, Trump fired all of the board of trustees for the center, replacing them with handpicked loyalists who eventually voted to rename it “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the name change was improper without the passage of a congressional bill. The question of the center’s name is currently tied up in the courts.
According to reporting from The Washington Post and The New York Times, members of the board appear to have drafted a resolution meant to bolster arguments in favor of putting Trump’s name back on the building’s exterior. The draft says that Trump has “offered to step in and raise the necessary funds” for the center, adding that, “without such appropriate recognition, it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the center.”
Board member Paolo Zampolli, who is a longtime Trump loyalist, told The New York Times that Trump’s name on the building would supposedly help bring in donors.
“Trump attracts money. So when Trump says donate to this place, everyone will donate,” Zampolli said.
But Trump’s ability to turn the center’s purported funding crisis around is questionable. For starters, there is nothing stopping him right now from asking for donations to the Kennedy Center, with or without his name attached. Secondly, several sponsors of the venue actually pulled their support from it specifically because Trump tried to put his name on its exterior. Several performers, too, canceled their upcoming shows because of that move.
In other words, the center’s financial issues are unlikely to be fixed by somehow getting the president’s name back on the Kennedy Center.
The way in which Trump raises funds is also worrying. With other projects, including the funding of the ballroom he wants for the East Wing of the White House, and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the country, Trump’s fundraising has raised serious questions about conflicts of interest.
Several commentators reacted negatively to the draft document’s claims.
“Trump [is] basically holding the Kennedy Center hostage,” said Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief at Mother Jones.
“Trump is trying to blackmail the Kennedy Center into putting his name on it. They should refuse,” The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols said.
The center is “another incredible part of our country’s culture that Donald Trump is well on the way to destroying, simply to satisfy his own ego,” opined former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, writing about the matter on her Civil Discourse Substack page.
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