RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers In a 21-page court filing late Monday warned that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—which opened to the public in September 1971—could be destroyed and replaced with another venue if it cannot undergo the extensive renovations sought by President Donald Trump.
DOJ attorney Brantley T. Mayers described the building as “dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit” in a the filing, arguing that the center would continue to deteriorate without Trump’s remodeling.
“It is structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital,” Mayers wrote in opposition to Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty’s latest effort to block the administration’s plans for the Kennedy Center.
Ohio's Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, has spearheaded the legal challenge to the Trump-appointed board’s push to rename the center and close it for extensive renovations. She argued that the board could not legally rename the performance center to include "Trump" without congressional approval.
On Thursday, she made an emergency request asking a federal court to block the center from restoring Trump’s name to the facade and naming its grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
During a July 22 Democratic congressional oversight hearing, Beatty said her legal challenge was aimed at protecting the center and the rule of law, accusing Trump-appointed trustees of unlawfully stripping ex officio members of their voting rights and attempting to rename the building honoring President John F. Kennedy, a Democratic icon, who was assassinated in 1963 during his term in the Oval Office.
“My testimony is about not allowing this unlawful act, protecting the rule of law and standing up for the only living memorial to John F. Kennedy,” Beatty said. “It’s about whether powerful people can rewrite history, seize public institutions and silence dissent."
Newsweek has reached out to the DOJ and Beatty for comment.
Mayers claimed that if Trump is not given recognition for updating the center, it would cause “donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop.”
He also said that the president is “uniquely qualified” for the task, given his expertise and experience in real estate and construction, adding that the center would further deteriorate without the proposed renovations and eventually need to meet the wrecking ball.
The DOJ lawyer also pitched the idea of a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed by some, “for many years,” as a potential replacement.
While more economical to build, operate and maintain, such a replacement would “fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy,” Mayers added.
The Trump administration is primed for the renovation, but without it, the Kennedy Center “cannot be saved,” Mayers said.
“The bottom line is this: Even Beatty should prefer a healthy, restored Center to a decaying hulk that is doomed to inevitable destruction or collapse,” he wrote.
Lawyers for Beatty pressed a judge for an earlier ruling, arguing there is “every reason to believe that Defendants will attempt to effectuate some or part of this latest unlawful resolution at the earliest opportunity after September 8."
Last week, lawyers for the center wouldn’t commit to taking down the scaffolding, where Trump’s name once stood, saying it’s needed as part of a broader system for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anna Commander and Edward T. Cummins .
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