Opponents of a plan to restore US President Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center urged a federal judge on Thursday to block the move, calling it “open defiance” of his previous rulings.
Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Trump’s name removed from the facade of the performing arts center in May but the Republican president’s handpicked Kennedy Center board voted this month to restore it. Under the board’s proposal, the words “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
Trump” would feature beneath the slain president’s name and the surrounding site in Washington would be renamed the “President Donald J.
Government lawyers argued at a hearing before Cooper on Thursday that the phrasing would not constitute a renaming but rather recognition of Trump’s efforts to renovate the building honoring president John F Kennedy.
Since Trump’s takeover of the city’s most storied cultural venue, attendance has dropped dramatically and many artists refuse to perform there. The closure plan is seen by Trump critics as a face-saving gesture by the administration. It warned this week that the Kennedy Center may have to be demolished if courts block the president’s plans to overhaul the complex.
“What a nice Kennedy Center you have here.
Nathaniel Zelinsky, a lawyer for opponents of Trump’s renovation plans, accused the administration at Thursday’s hearing of “open defiance” of the court and “massive bad faith. What a shame should something happen to it,” Zelinsky said.
