(AFP) – Leaders of the Kennedy Center who have sought to add President Donald Trump’s name to the storied institution say it is facing bankruptcy and possible closure in days, the Washington Post reported Sunday. According to documents obtained by the paper, the center’s board of trustees is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to close the main building of Washington’s performing arts center, due to financial and safety needs.
Officials warn in the documents that the center “could be unable to make payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts” within weeks, the Post reported. Publicly recognizing Trump at the center, they argue in the 57-page pre-meeting packet, would help ensure fundraising help to keep it afloat. “Trustees are being asked to choose among 10 texts that could be placed on the building’s exterior beneath its name,” to publicly credit Trump with the renovation, the Post reported.
Shortly after beginning his second term, Trump installed himself as chairman of the center, which is named in honor of late president John F. Kennedy, who championed civil rights before he was assassinated in 1963. In December, Trump’s hand-picked board voted to rename it the “Trump-Kennedy” center, a move that was later blocked in court.
A host of artists have canceled concerts at the venue in response to Trump’s takeover, and US media reported that Kennedy Center ticket sales had plummeted to their lowest levels since the Covid pandemic. The Post reported the center was slated to collect about $124 million of the projected $220 million in revenue that it had budgeted, “leaving a roughly $23 million deficit even after substantial spending cuts” this past fiscal year.
Additionally, the building itself was damaged in a severe storm earlier this month, when a “roughly four-by-five-foot section of ceiling plaster broke loose in the Grand Foyer and fell about 60 feet,” the Post reported, among other needed repairs.
Asked about the Post’s reporting, the Kennedy Center declined to comment and referred AFP to a recent statement from spokesperson Roma Daravi blaming “decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership.” “Adding Chairman President Trump’s name to the building attracted new donors and was crucial to raising additional funds for the Center’s renovation,” a spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
© 2024 AFP
