The Kennedy Center is establishing a new endowment to honor President Donald Trump, whose name was stripped from the building to comply with an order from a judge who ruled it was added illegally.
The center’s board of trustees — handpicked by Trump after he purged its membership last year — unanimously voted to create the fund, CBS News reported Sunday.
“The establishment of the Trump Kennedy Center Fund is intended to recognize President Donald J. Trump’s significant contributions and dedication to America’s premier cultural center, while furthering our founding mission like never before,” Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Davari said in a statement to The Independent.
The move was blasted by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who last year sued Trump, the center and its trustees to reverse the addition of Trump’s name to the iconic capital performing arts center and to block its planned two-year closure for in renovations.
“It’s clear to me after this latest board meeting that some of Donald Trump’s appointees are more focused on elevating the President than advancing the arts,” Beatty said in a statement posted on social media.
Beatty is among a number of lawmakers and administration officials who serve as non-voting, ex officio trustees due to their roles in the government.
The new Trump Kennedy Center Fund will supplement existing private endowments and $257 million in federal funding for the planned renovations, according to the center.
A source familiar with the plan suggested the fund would be used to address the purported “physical disrepair” about which Trump has complained, CBS News said.
Trump named himself to the center’s board and was elected its chair by his appointees, who include country music singer Lee Greenwood, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, her mother, Cheri Summerall, and White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, who as a teen was Trump’s golf caddie.
Last year, the board voted to add Trump’s name to the center, which was created pursuant to a 1964 law that called for it to be an enduring memorial to President John F. Kennedy following his assassination the previous year.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last month that Trump’s name had to be removed from the building, saying in a 94-page decision that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Workers pried the letters spelling out “The Donald J. Trump and” above the words “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” over its entrance, according to a court filing Saturday.
But scaffolding and tarps remain in place to cover the area where Trump’s name was removed.
The work came after both Cooper and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday denied last-minute emergency motions to stay Cooper’s order pending an appeal by Trump and the other defendants in Beatty’s lawsuit.
Cooper had imposed a Friday deadline to complete the job but granted a one-day extension after the defense cited “thunderstorms which presented safety concerns to workers completing the compliance task.”
In addition to removing the “physical signage,” the Kennedy Center has updated its website to remove all references to the “Trump Kennedy Center” and withdrawn a trademark application, according to court papers. References to Trump have also been removed from employees’ email signatures, the center’s stationery and brochures, and all employees have been given new ID cards that don’t bear Trump’s name.
