“A project of this salience and magnitude — which threatens to involve at least some demolition and reconstruction of a major national memorial and active performing arts theater — does not happen overnight,” Cooper wrote. Cooper said that argument “borders on preposterous.”Beatty, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, is challenging the legality of Trump’s plan to temporarily close the building. “No president has the authority to shut Congress out of the governance of the Kennedy Center, much less unilaterally rename or demolish it. The congresswoman has also asked the judge to halt the center’s planned closure until it receives congressional approval. He gutted the board and installed loyalists who elected him chair and voted in December to rename the venue the “Trump Kennedy Center” — a move Beatty is challenging in court.

Source: CNN March 14, 2026 20:54 UTC