Kennedy Center board votes to close main building for renovations

The Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to immediately close the venue’s main building for renovations, according to a source familiar, as the board argues that only President Trump can raise enough money to save it.

The vote comes after officials indicated that the performing arts center faces “certain fiscal collapse within weeks,” with a draft resolution describing the center as on the brink of bankruptcy, soon to be unable to make payroll or routine maintenance contracts.

The board, handpicked by Trump, has also said the building was “unsafe for continued occupancy,” pointing to a recent water leak that caused a partial collapse of the grand foyer ceiling.

Trump said after the vote that the closure “will take place immediately” but that the work can’t be done until the D.C. Circuit rules on the center’s name change to include his name.

“If the ruling 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,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The attorneys from the DOJ will ask for an expedited appeal.”

“In the meantime, 17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat,’ he added.

Trump reportedly attended the vote virtually.

Minutes before the vote was scheduled to take place, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper again blocked the board’s attempt to add Trump’s name to the facade. It was the second time that the judge found the board’s action was likely unlawful.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote. “The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”

The resolutions point to Trump’s fundraising skills as the center’s only saving grace. The board of trustees was restructured by the president last February, when he fired half the board and installed 14 new members.

“The Board understands 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,” the resolution stated.

Justice Department attorneys, who are representing the Kennedy Center in the ongoing legal challenge, told Cooper during a hearing last month that the center was in “structural and financial disarray,” arguing further court intervention would impede the renovation project.

Cooper rejected that notion as “not quite fair,” noting that his initial order in late May allowed “necessary maintenance and repair work” to continue.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month that the renovations are expected to cost $257 million. He also said the proposed renovations would keep open the REACH, a new art space on the center’s campus, walking back previous controversial proposals that included its full closure.

Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center earlier this year after a board vote in December 2025. But there was outrage over the addition of the Trump name, and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio board member, brought a lawsuit to stop the name change.

The president’s name was stripped from the building in June after a ruling said it violated federal law, but in August, the board voted on a resolution that would re-add Trump’s name in the form of two inscriptions.

Beatty on Tuesday said the decision to close the center is a “breach of his fiduciary duty as a trustee.”

“For years, the Kennedy Center has planned to undergo phased renovations, in which we both renovate and maintain some performances. This is how major performing arts centers in the country operate. But donors, patrons, and artists all fled after the unlawful attempt to rename this sacred memorial after Donald Trump,” she said. “Donald 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.”