The “Trump” name is crucial to the Kennedy Center’s ability to raise money, the government told a federal appeals court this week, asking the judges to keep President Trump’s name on the building while legal challenges play out.
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Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said that without Mr. Trump, the storied performing arts venue would face “financial ruin.”
Wealthy benefactors would no longer be willing to pony up for refurbishments for the building and Congress might be less willing to approve additional funding, Mr. Shumate suggested. Hundreds of millions of dollars in already-given gifts would have to be returned, he added.
“Many donors and companies, who have given, or will be giving, millions of dollars to the center were only willing to do so with the name ‘Trump’ on the building,” Mr. Shumate said in a brief filed Monday. “No one else other than President Trump would be in the position of both rebuilding the building, and raising the money for its operation. President Trump raised $258 million from Congress and hundreds of millions more in pledges and donations from patriotic private donors to rebuild and restore the Center.”
Mr. Shumate’s brief was effusive with praise for Mr. Trump, often adopting the president’s curious habit of capitalizing random words and echoing the president’s own praise for himself.
The brief mentions Mr. Trump’s “unparalleled construction talents” and “tremendous construction abilities” and says his plans would make the center “the crown jewel of Washington, D.C. and the envy of the world.”
It also adopts Mr. Trump’s apocalyptic predictions about the fate of the center, saying the center “would go into financial and structural collapse” if he does not get his way.
A federal judge ruled this summer that the center’s board, largely stocked with Trump loyalists, broke federal law when it voted to add Mr. Trump’s name, creating the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
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That ruling ordered the Trump name be stripped from the building.
The Department of Justice has appealed that ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and has asked that Mr. Trump’s name remain in place while the appeal develops.
Mr. Trump had sought to shut down the center for renovations starting on July 4. He envisioned a two-year closure.
The federal judge put those plans on ice, saying repairs can take place but the Kennedy Center can’t shut down unless it comes up with a more well-considered plan that balances construction needs with performance schedules.
The lawsuit was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex officio member of the center’s board. She argued that the law establishing the center declares that only Kennedy’s name be used.
The federal judge agreed.
Mr. Trump’s team argued that Ms. Beatty didn’t have legal standing to sue and said the law doesn’t preclude adding Mr. Trump’s name, as long as the Kennedy name also remains.
The Justice Department also said that while the law forbids other names as memorials, that doesn’t apply to the building name.
“Including President Trump’s name is not a memorial, it is a recognition of his contributions to the center,” the government argued.
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