Trump’s Own Lawyers Contradict His Kennedy Center Threat

Carlos Barria / REUTERS President Donald Trump’s own lawyers have undercut his threats over the Kennedy Center’s future.

The president, 80, is hell-bent on getting his name put back onto the building’s facade, after a judge ordered that it should be removed in June.

Trump, however, didn’t give up after the embarrassing legal loss and has instead threatened the performing arts institution’s future, saying that it could be “ripped down” if his name isn’t restored.

“For the Trump administration, for me, to get involved, and to take on long-term, and to carry it, or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” the president said last week, days after his hand-picked board voted to close the venue during $250 million renovations.

The closed-door virtual vote occurred just hours after U.S.

District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the board from adding President Trump’s name back onto the building’s facade.

“Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close; it will end up being ripped down,” he threatened.

But a new status report filed by the Justice Department in federal court offers a different explanation for the center’s immediate closure, pointing to a string of safety concerns rather than the demolition threat Trump has publicly floated, according to the Washington Sun .

In the report, Kennedy Center Executive Director Matt Floca said the building has several serious safety problems, including ceiling panels that could fall, water getting into electrical equipment, and potentially unsafe theater machinery.

Tellingly, his declaration did not say the center needs to be demolished.

Floca added that the temporary closure of the center has been extended for another week because of the safety concerns.

This, according to the report, is “to protect employees, patrons, artists, contractors, and other members of the public while the Center evaluated documented falling-object hazards and other infrastructure conditions and determined what measures would be required for safe occupancy and emergency egress.” The filing detailed damage and hazards following severe storms that battered D.C. earlier this month, including a large section of ceiling plaster that fell onto the Grand Foyer floor.

The report said the plaster weighed approximately 150 pounds and fell from approximately 60 feet to the floor “in a public thoroughfare.” Former project managers previously complained that a rush to spruce up the Kennedy Center ahead of President Donald Trump’s FIFA Peace Prize ceremony led to shortcuts that ultimately backfired, leaving behind costly problems.