President Donald Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to immediately shutter the performing arts center, citing its “dire” financial and structural shape.
\n\nThe vote came shortly after a federal judge in Washington rejected the board’s latest effort to add Trump’s name to the building’s facade. A spokesperson for the center said it would appeal.
\n\nTrump said on social media after the vote that renovations wouldn’t happen unless his name was added to the building.
\n\n“The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.”
\n\n“In the meantime, 17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat,” he added. Congress appropriated $250 million for the project last year.
\n\nThe board had cited a partial ceiling collapse in the center’s Grand Foyer this month as evidence that the…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/