According to a report from NBC News, two sources revealed that on August 13, the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts held a virtual meeting and voted to add President Trump’s name to the building’s exterior.
Additionally, the board decided to close the center’s main building for two years for renovations, while the newer theater wing will remain open.
Reports indicate that the virtual meeting lasted nearly two hours, with the board passing the renaming resolution by a vote of 20 in favor and 3 against. The building will now be called “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump,” and the venue has been named “The President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” Commerce Secretary Lutnick proposed the name change.
A source who attended the meeting said Trump, who appointed himself board chairman last year, also participated in several minutes of discussion.
Those who voted against the resolution were Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and Democratic Representative Rick Larsen.
Beatty issued a statement saying, “This new development is clearly an attempt to circumvent the court’s ruling and blatantly defies the statute passed by Congress.”
In December of last year, the board voted to rename the Kennedy Center to the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” Beatty subsequently filed a lawsuit.
In May of this year, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump’s name should be removed from the building and website of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The judge’s ruling stated: “The Kennedy Center’s organizing charter explicitly stipulates that the center must be named after (former) President Kennedy, and the board has no authority to unilaterally decide on other official names or public memorial names. Congress granted the Kennedy Center this name, and only Congress has the authority to change it.”
The ruling was executed in June.