2-Year Closure: Trump Orders Kennedy Center Overhaul
Trump announces a two-year Kennedy Center closure for renovations after the controversial renaming, sparking backlash from artists and lawmakers.
President Donald Trump has announced that the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., will close for a two-year renovation beginning in July.
Trump said the center would close on July 4th of this year "in honor of our nation's 250th anniversary."
The move comes after several artists canceled their performances at the renowned institution following its recent renaming to the Trump Kennedy Center.
Shortly after taking office, the president removed several of the center's board members and replaced them with his own appointees, who subsequently voted to make Trump the board's chairman.
The new board then renamed the institution the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December. New signage was installed on the building's exterior the following day.
Due to the name change, several musical acts, including composer Stephen Schwartz of the musical Wicked and a group called Doug Varone and the Dancers, canceled their performances at the center in the following weeks.
On Thursday, the venue hosted a premiere screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump.
Trump has said there will be a "scheduled grand reopening" for the facility, and that funding for the renovation has already been secured.
"I have determined that if the Trump Kennedy Center is temporarily closed for construction, revitalization, and a complete rebuild, it can, without question, become the finest performing arts facility of its kind in the world."
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"In other words, if we don't close, the quality of the construction won't be as good, and it will take much longer to complete due to interruptions from the many events using the facility and the audiences attending them." Trump had sharply criticized the center's dilapidated condition and worked with Congress to allocate more than $250 million (£182 million) in funding for its renovation, one of several such projects undertaken during his presidency.
Some U.S. lawmakers and legal experts have argued that because the center was named in a 1964 law, any name change would require congressional approval.
Last December, Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty filed a lawsuit to remove Trump's name for this very reason.
Some members of President John F. Kennedy's family have also condemned the move. The center was named in Kennedy's honor shortly after his assassination. Former U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III, the late president's grandson, said the site is "a living memorial to a deceased president and is named after President Kennedy by federal law."
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