President Donald Trump has been engaged in an ongoing legal battle to attach his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—and a new court filing warns that the building could eventually face demolition if his renovation plans do not proceed.
In the filing, Justice Department lawyers representing the center argued that Trump’s proposed renovations were necessary to prevent what they called "a financial and structural death spiral." They described the building as ‘structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital’ and warned that without the work, it could deteriorate to the point that it would need to be demolished.
The filing suggested that the building could be replaced by a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River. The lawyers said that “such a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy, but would be simpler and more economical to build, operate, and maintain.”
The filing marks an unusually explicit reference by the Trump Administration to the possibility of demolishing the venue, which first opened its doors in 1971 as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
At the start of Trump’s second term, he overhauled the center’s governing board and replaced several members with allies. That board voted in December 2025 to rename the venue as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” In February, he also ordered the center to close for two years to make way for renovations.
In May, a judge ruled that only Congress could rename the center and temporarily blocked both the name change and the planned closure. The judge ordered Trump’s name removed from the building.
Earlier this month, the board voted to rename the building “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,” setting up a new test of the court’s ruling.
Internal records obtained byThe Washington Post showed that ticket revenue and fundraising fell sharply after Trump’s name was added to the building.
The reference to demolition comes as Trump has pursued major changes to other Washington landmarks. His Administration demolished the White House’s East Wing to make way for a ballroom costing hundreds of millions of dollars—a project facing its own legal challenges.
In a statement Tuesday, lawyers for Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the center’s board, called the Justice Department’s threat “unconscionable.”
“This is a not-so-subtle threat to demolish the Kennedy Center if the President doesn’t get his way,” attorneys Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky said. “This is unconscionable, it is unbecoming of the Department of Justice to even put this in a filing, and we will answer in court.”
A hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27, on Beatty’s emergency motion seeking to block the board’s latest attempt to add Trump’s name to the center.
TIME has reached out to the Justice Department and the Kennedy Center for comment.
