The doors close now

A Kennedy Center board chaired by President Trump and stacked with his Cabinet members and allies voted to shut the institution immediately for renovations, a source familiar with the vote said.

A judge said no first

Hours earlier, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper again blocked the board from putting Trump's name on the building, this time as an inscription reading "Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump."

“Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing”

The renaming fight has history

Last December the board voted to rename it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center. In May, Cooper ruled the name was added illegally, ordered it removed, and blocked a renovation closure.

A tarp where the name was

Since the removal, the exterior wall bearing the Kennedy Center's name has sat behind a scaffold covered in tarp.

The death spiral argument

Justice Department lawyers called conditions "dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit" and pointed to recent losses to justify closing. Congress approved $250 million for the work last year.

“financial and structural death spiral”

Renovation held hostage

On Truth Social, Trump said construction waits on a D.C. Circuit appeal, and that a loss upheld by the Supreme Court means no renovation at all. He claims $17 million raised from undisclosed donors.

“the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place”