By Katharine Jackson and Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday to provide at least 30 days’ notice before taking any steps to demolish the Kennedy Center, the landmark performing arts venue that has become a flashpoint in his efforts to reshape the U.S. capital.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the order after lawyers for a Democratic congresswoman who is suing to keep the venue open and Trump’s name off its facade submitted new evidence citing the Republican president’s comments on Wednesday referring to demolishing the Kennedy Center.
“I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina, referring to putting his name on the facility established by Congress and opened in 1971 as a memorial to slain President John Kennedy.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s Trump-backed executive director, said in a court filing earlier on Thursday that the building was being temporarily closed to assess safety risks in areas “exhibiting severe structural deterioration.”
Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, who sued Trump last year over his Kennedy Center plans, responded in a filing in federal court in Washington that the closure “is a recipe for defendants extending their shutdown forever and closing the Kennedy Center for the next two years — the very thing this court said they could not do without its permission.”
Beatty’s lawyers also cited a photo circulating on social media that depicted the president aboard Air Force One looking at a poster they said appeared to be titled “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” The photo has not been independently verified by Reuters.
Trump last year had the White House’s historic East Wing demolished to make way for a ballroom project he has pursued.
EMERGENCY HEARING DENIED
Cooper turned down a request by Beatty for an emergency hearing on her lawsuit after the Kennedy Center’s board, including Trump and his hand-picked appointees, voted this week to close the venue for up to two years for a $257 million renovation project.
Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, said the venue is no longer accessible to the public during normal operating hours. New barriers were visible outside the building on Wednesday.
Beatty and other critics have accused Trump of seeking to place his name on the Kennedy Center out of vanity. Trump’s name had been placed on the building’s facade until the judge in May ordered it removed, saying only Congress can change the name.
Cooper earlier directed the board to explain by Thursday whether the administration’s plan violates an earlier order he issued limiting its ability to shut its doors. The board said on Thursday morning that it was not in violation of the order, and the seven-day emergency closure was separate from the larger renovation plans.
The Trump administration said it would ask the judge by Friday to dissolve the prior order to allow for what the government called “closure necessary to complete the restoration and renovations.”
Cooper, in a ruling on Tuesday, rejected the center’s latest effort to put Trump’s name on the building to reflect his role in the planned renovation. The administration has appealed, and Trump said on social media the Kennedy Center “is destined to doom” if it is not permitted to close for repairs.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Mike Scarcella; Editing by Will Dunham, Doina Chiacu, Andrea Ricci, David Bario and Rod Nickel)
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