Left inset: President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, July 16, 2026, in Washington (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP, File). Main: The front of the Kennedy Center remains covered as U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to add his name to the front of the building despite court rulings against his efforts. (Photo by Dominic Gwinn / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
The Kennedy Center is allegedly in danger of closing as early as Tuesday as it's on the brink of bankruptcy, but leaders insist that they have a plan to stop it: biting the bullet and finally putting President Donald Trump's name on the facade after months of turmoil over it.
Trump's handpicked board of trustees plans to hold a meeting early Tuesday afternoon after "additional materials" were presented to its members, including "new putative reports that directly link the closure to the Kennedy Center's dire financial circumstances," according to a Monday court notice filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a member of the board who has been leading legal efforts to block the Trump name change. Beatty is not a Trump pick for the Kennedy Center board; she serves by virtue of her role in Congress.
The "additional materials" are said to include two possible resolutions that will be considered at the meeting.
"The first draft resolution is yet another vote to shut down the Kennedy Center," Beatty's notice says. "It incorrectly asserts that the Delta Consulting Group considers the main building 'unsafe for continued occupancy,' when Delta expressly disclaimed providing any such opinion. It also seeks to justify the closure by citing a recent leak in the building which caused a portion of the ceiling plaster to detach. (In the past, similar such defects appear to have been addressed without closing the Center.)"
Beatty says the second draft resolution "would again order the placement of President Trump's name on the exterior of the center" following months of pushback on the move, which was greenlit by board members in December 2025, when they voted to change the facility's name to "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."
"Notably, the second resolution states that '[t]he Kennedy Center is in such a precarious fiscal position that it will not be able to support its payroll obligations, nor routine maintenance contracts within a matter of weeks," Beatty's notice says. "The resolution also states that '[t]he Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center.'"
In her notice, Beatty includes exhibits from a packet distributed by the board of trustees ahead of the Tuesday meeting.
"The Kennedy Center is in a dire financial position having exhausted its fiscal resources," the board said in the packet. "The Kennedy Center is in such a precarious fiscal position that it will not be able to support its payroll obligations, nor routine maintenance contracts within a matter of weeks. While actively considering alternative means of fiscal survival, President Trump has offered to step in and raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy during its much needed renovation."
The board claimed that it "understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center." Members say "certain fiscal collapse" could happen within weeks.
Beatty notes how her legal team is prepared to discuss the implications of this "newest maneuver" at the hearing. She says 10 options are being considered for the text that could be placed on the center's facade beneath its name. They include:
Option 1: Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 2: Renovation Restoration and Endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 3: With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 4: Renovation and Restoration directed by President Donald J. Trump and endowment provided by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 5: Restoration and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and endowment provided by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 6: A Legacy protected through the Generosity of President Donald J. Trump
Option 7: Renovated, restored, and sustained through the generosity of President Donald J. Trump
Option 8: Renovation, oversight, and support provided by President Donald J. Trump
Option 9: Acknowledging the unwavering support of President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund
Option 10: Renovation, Restoration, and support by President Donald J. Trump
The Department of Justice has claimed that the Kennedy Center "is in terrible trouble" and dealing with a "crisis […] so acute that, without the Trump Administration, its people, and President Trump, the Center cannot survive, either structurally or financially." Beatty urged a federal judge in late August not to drink the "cocktail of fabulous pronouncements and stunning inaccuracies" that the administration had offered about the center's alleged "death spiral."
The judge — U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee — ruled months ago that the board, of which Trump himself is a member and chairman, "overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center" after Trump. He ordered Trump's name removed, and an appeals court upheld that ruling.
Trump has publicly blasted the jurist on Truth Social as "highly conflicted," emphasizing he is married to one of former President Joe Biden's attorneys.
The Washington Litigation Group, which is representing Beatty in her lawsuit to halt Trump's shuttering of the Kennedy Center, put out a statement Monday saying the "constant effort" to add Trump's name to the center's facade is "the definition of insanity" and the third attempt to "deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man's ego."
The statement added, "Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way."
Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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