Trump Board Offers BS Excuse for Shutting Down Landmark

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast The Kennedy Center claims its rush to shut down one day after Donald Trump declared it would close “immediately” has nothing to do with his hand-picked board’s vote on Tuesday to close the iconic building.

A new court filing paints a strikingly different picture from what the board initially claimed: shuttering the arts center for two years to undertake renovations.

Instead, the administration now says it is “temporarily” closing the center for “seven days, unless extended” due to “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration at the Center.

“No part of the Court’s preliminary injunction order forbids a temporary closure like this one,” the board said in a court filing on Thursday morning.

The president’s board is stacked with Trump allies, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, country crooner Lee Greenwood, special envoy Paolo Zampolli, Fox host Laura Ingraham and former Fox presenter Maria Bartiromo.

They voted on Tuesday to close the living memorial to President John F.

Kennedy for renovations.

Less than 24 hours later, construction workers quickly put up metal barriers around the building, shutting the public out.

Rep.

Joyce Beatty, who has been leading the charge against the president’s takeover, immediately filed for an emergency hearing.

But the Justice Department on Thursday said the Trump-picked board had every right to temporarily shut down the Center to assess its structural problems.

It cited deterioration in overhead panels around the building, which were “an active falling hazard,” as well as ceiling plaster that fell after major storms in D.C. earlier this month.

“There is no emergency caused by Defendants’ temporary closure of the Center; the only emergency is the risk to the public and the Center’s employees and artists if it remained fully open without further safety assessment,” the filing says.

But it comes as Trump has been ranting that unless his name goes back up on the building, renovations will not take place, despite Congress having already allocated $257 million for repairs.