Justice Department Tells a Judge the Kennedy Center Will 'Have to Be Taken Down' If Trump's Renovation and Naming Plans Are Blocked

In an Aug. 25 court filing, Brantley Mayers, a senior official in the Justice Department's Civil Division, argued that the Kennedy Center faces a "death spiral" without Trump's renovation push and would "deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down," possibly replaced by an outdoor amphitheater. The filing repeatedly attacks Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a board member who sued last year to remove Trump's name, and calls the plan to inscribe "Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump" on the building and rename the site "President Donald J. Trump Plaza" crucial to keeping donors.

Filings by the Justice Department are the government's formal representations to a court. Framing the demolition of a national memorial as a consequence of an adverse ruling, and tying pledged donations to naming a sitting president, puts institutional stakes on the outcome of a naming dispute.

Beatty's lawyers Norman Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky called the filing "legally baseless" and "a not-so-subtle threat to demolish the Kennedy Center if the President doesn't get his way." U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper set a hearing on Beatty's emergency injunction motion for the following Thursday.