A man walks past the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the day the center's board voted to inscribe "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump" onto the building, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The Trump-installed board that runs the Kennedy Center told a federal judge the building will have to be torn down unless President Donald Trump's name goes on it.
Justice Department lawyers made the argument for Trump on Monday in a court filing before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper. It opposes an emergency motion by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), a board member who sued to stop the renaming.
The board voted on Aug. 13 to carve "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump" into the front of the building and to rename the grounds "President Donald J. Trump Plaza."
Without those efforts, the center "will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down," the filing said.
The government's lawyers then floated what might go up instead, "such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years."
"Such a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy, but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain," the filing said.
The warning rests on a claim the brief repeats throughout, which is that the money follows the recognition. Without "prominent recognition" of Trump's efforts, "the donors will not contribute, and the Center will continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral," the filing said.
An order blocking the board "will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop," it added.
Trump took over the board in February 2025, removing trustees appointed by Democrats and installing allies who elected him chairman. The board renamed the institution for him last December.
"Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," Cooper ruled in May, ordering the name stripped from the facade.
The building is "structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation's Capital," the filing said.
Beatty's lawsuit "almost guarantees the continued decline and eventual demise of the Kennedy Center, probably leading to the construction of a new, but very different kind, of venue," the government wrote.
Beatty called the board's vote a "new and breathtaking act of defiance" in her emergency motion last week.
"The Court should allow the Board and President Trump to bring the Center back to a level of greatness far higher than it has ever had before," the filing said. The board has agreed not to act before Sept. 8.