U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the press as he arrives at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, while he travels to attend a campaign rally supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., September 16, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
A federal judge has been asked to tell President Donald Trump in plain words that he cannot demolish the Kennedy Center under any circumstances after the government played "shell games" and shut down the facility despite a court order forbidding its closure.
The warning came in a court filing in Beatty v. Trump, a months-long lawsuit over the administration's control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
The brief from attorneys for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) calls the administration's closure of the building last Tuesday a "plain pretext" to shut it permanently — and says new evidence suggests demolition may be next, according to the filing.
Hours before the closure, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had again blocked the administration from adding Trump's name to the building in any form, CNBC reported.
"Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing," Cooper wrote in the ruling.
Hours later, the board voted to close the building. Trump announced on Truth Social that it would shut down "immediately," the filing says.
The government maintained in its response that the closure was a separate, seven-day safety measure ordered by the center's executive director — not a response to the board's vote.
The building had remained open for 12 days after a Sept. 4 ceiling plaster fall that the administration now cites as the safety emergency, the filing notes.
The executive director's email to staff acknowledged the closure would let operations staff "determine whether any other severe safety incident is imminent" — before one had been found, Beatty's lawyers argue, according to the filing.
"They closed the building first and plan to look for a reason afterward. This is a shell game," the filing said.
The filing took on additional urgency overnight after Trump, speaking to reporters Tuesday, tied the building's fate directly to whether his name appears on it, according to a video Acyn posted on X.
"Frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close and then be ripped down," Trump said.
"Why does it have to have your name on there?" a reporter asked. Trump walked away without answering, the video showed.
Separately, images circulated on social media appearing to show Trump aboard Air Force One reading a placard that read "Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED," according to a post Aaron Rupar shared on X.
The filing warns that demolishing the building would violate the law Congress passed to create and name the Kennedy Center — as well as potentially a federal criminal statute that prohibits damaging government property.
"[Demolition] would represent a monumental breach of fiduciary duty, a clear violation of the organic statute, and also potentially a violation of criminal law," the filing states.
Beatty's lawyers are asking the court for an emergency hearing, a ruling that the closure violated the existing injunction, and an explicit order barring demolition, according to the filing.
The government said the center's executive director would attend any hearing and provide live testimony, according to its response.
The filing argues the conduct fits a "well-established pattern" of Trump administration officials "moving faster and one step ahead of the courts" to evade judicial orders — and points to the administration's demolition of the White House East Wing in October 2025 as precedent, according to the filing.