WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center’s board moved Thursday to rename the area around the iconic performing arts center the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” and to add Trump’s name back onto the building’s facade — after a federal judge ordered its removal.
Trump’s allies on the board pushed through the changes during a meeting that lasted more than two hours, after Democrats including Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty objected to Trump’s plans to renovate and rebrand the aging facility.
Trump, who chairs the board, participated virtually in part of the meeting and pushed back on criticism of his plans to pour $250 million into refreshing the center, which opened in 1971. The refresh will require the main building’s closure for about two years.
In a twist, the board’s latest plan calls for Trump’s name to appear beneath the longtime signage on the cavernous main hall, to read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”
The board voted last December to rebrand it as the “Trump Kennedy Center,” but the change was nixed by US District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ordered the current president’s name removed because it lacked congressional ratification.
Democrats slammed the latest actions.
“This morning’s decision to close the Center and the surprise agenda item to put Donald Trump’s name back on the building was more of the same,” Beatty said in a statement. “This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed.”
Paolo Zampolli, a presidential appointee to the board, fired back at critics, urging Trump’s name to be inscribed in large letters and ridiculing opposition to the temporary closure as willfully ignorant of necessary repairs and improvements.
“I call on everyone who is complaining about what we’re doing to go walk the building,” Zampolli told The Post. “To all of the haters, we’re not closing the center. We’re closing the main building. We’re still going to use the $300 million structure called the Reach to do shows.”
The center’s staff did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
“Under President Trump’s bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world,” said White House spokeswoman Liz Huston.
