Trump administration threatens to demolish Kennedy Center

Aug. 25 (UPI) — The Trump administration threatened in a court filing to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if it’s not allowed to renovate the building, including putting President Donald Trump’s name back on it.

“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years,” Justice Department attorney Brantley T. Mayers wrote in a court filing on Monday.

The do***ent said that any potential amphitheater would “fail to adequately honor” President John F. Kennedy, “but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate and maintain.”

The attorneys from the Department of Justice wrote that the center is “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe and embarrblocking to the Nation’s Capital.”

The board, hand-picked by Trump, voted on Aug. 19, to add Trump’s name back to the Kennedy Center after a judge ruled that Trump’s name had to be removed from the facade, all signage and all do***ents relating to the center. An appeals court agreed. Since the name was removed, tarps have covered the front of the building, over Kennedy’s name.

The new name is proposed to be: “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

A hearing is scheduled on the planned name change and closure on Thursday afternoon.

The board, the do***ent said, “recognizes that President Trump’s efforts and prestige provide the sole hope for the Center’s financial survival and structural renewal.”

“The Board also underscores, and the undisputed evidence demonstrates, that without the prominent recognition of The Trump Administration, and President Trump’s efforts, the donors will not contribute, and the Center will continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral. The Trump Administration, and President Donald J. Trump, should, therefore, be given the respect and dignity of acknowledgement,” the filing said.

It said Trump “obtained $258 million in funding from Congress for capital restoration, and has marshalled a new donor base to finance an endowment for the Center,” but doesn’t say what has happened to that money.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who has sued to prevent the center’s renaming, filed a motion Monday to block the administration from closing the Kennedy Center.

The administration has “committed an enormous amount of time and energy in planning for the forthcoming renovation and restoration of this building, a task which President Trump, given his unrivaled expertise and experience in real estate and construction, and prominence as President, is uniquely qualified to accomplish,” Mayers wrote in opposition to Beatty’s motion.

“Even Beatty should prefer a healthy, restored Center to a decaying hulk that is doomed to inevitable destruction or collapse. 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. This would be the fitting tribute that President Kennedy so well deserves.”