Trump administration: Kennedy Center may be demolished if repairs not made

Department of Justice lawyers told a federal judge the venue ‘cannot survive’ without the US president’s help.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has warned that Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center could be demolished if renovations are not allowed to be completed.

In a Monday court filing, US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers told a federal judge the performing arts venue is in “terrible trouble,” adding that it “cannot survive, either structurally or financially” without the help of the president or his administration.

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“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down,” the filing said.

According to the DOJ filing, an outdoor ampitheatre, overlooking the adjacent Potomac River, could be built on the site if the venue is torn down. The lawyers said that replacement – which they noted would “fail to adequately honor” the venue’s namesake, former US President John F Kennedy – would be “simpler and more economical”.

The revelation, which marks the most extreme action mentioned for the venue since Trump took control of it after returning to the White House for a second term in 2025, was contained within the administration’s response to an effort to block his name from being inscribed on the building.

US Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat who sits on the Kennedy Center’s board through her leadership position in Congress, sued after Trump-appointed board members voted 20-3 to add the phrase “restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump” beneath existing signage. Previously, the board renamed the venue after Trump before a judge ordered that his name be removed from the building’s façade.

Any decision to tear down the historic Kennedy Center, which opened in 1971 to honour the fallen president, would likely face stiff pushback from preservation groups and those opposed to Trump’s efforts to make changes at the site.

Norm Eisen, one of Beatty’s attorneys, slammed the administration for considering a teardown of the venue, promising a legal response.

“The administration is now threatening in federal court to LEVEL the Kennedy Center if Trump does not get his way,” Eisen wrote on X Tuesday. “His path of destruction knows no bounds & he will answer for it in court.”

DOJ lawyers also made their case for why renovations should be allowed, writing in the filing that the venue “is structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital”.

Earlier this year, the Kennedy Center’s executive director, Matt Floca, said in a legal filing that renovations would include a “total replacement of stage lifts and rigging systems”, as well as electrical work and efforts to prevent water leaks.

Trump announced in February that he would close the building for two years of renovations before a judge blocked the move, saying that an earlier board vote endorsing the move was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained”. Earlier this month, the board voted to move forward with the closure.

The White House did not immediately reply to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.