Trump admin threatens to demolish Kennedy Center

The Trump administration is, for the first time, threatening the demolition of the Kennedy Center if the arts institution isn’t allowed to follow its plans for the site, including adding President Donald Trump’s name to the front of the building. [...] The DOJ attorneys called the Kennedy Center “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.”

Just when you thought the judge-ordered removal of Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts facade in June had put an end to ill-placed, egotistic name claims, the administration is doubling down with threats of demolishing the 1971 landmark altogether to make way for a replacement structure: "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," a Justice Department attorney stated in a court filing this week.

The Kennedy Center board, made up of Trump appointees, reportedly voted to tack Trump's name back onto the building, with the facade potentially reading: "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump Endowed by the Trump Kennedy ...