Kennedy Center Clash Erupts in New Filing Over Trump Threat

Evelyn Hockstein/REUTERS President Donald Trump’s threat to demolish the Kennedy Center unless it is named after him has prompted a fiery new legal response.

Trump, 80, previously announced a plan to close down the once-prestigious arts venue for an extensive renovation.

On Tuesday, Justice Department attorneys warned in a court filing that the current facility was “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.” They also suggested it could be bulldozed and replaced with an outdoor amphitheater.

Democrat Joyce Beatty has accused her fellow trustees on the center’s board, which is strewn with Trump allies, of holding the iconic building hostage and potentially replacing it with a “new, but very different” kind of venue.

Beatty’s lawyers said on Wednesday, “In plain English, Defendants have not-so-subtly said: `What a nice Kennedy Center you have here.

What a shame should something happen to it.’” They added, “This is a breathtaking assault on the rule of law.

It is delusional.

And it must stop.” Beatty filed an emergency motion last week to ask the U.S.

District Court of Columbia to block the Kennedy Centre board from again allowing the venue to be defaced by returning Trump’s name to the building, after it was removed in June, following a court ruling .

The motion came after the board voted to return Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, with their proposed new signage including his name to read “The John F.

Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Restored and Renovated by President Donald J.

Trump.

Additionally, a second Trump reference would also be added, ”Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” once the endowment reaches $100 million.