Stop Trump From Demolishing the Kennedy Center

First, Donald Trump took over the Kennedy Center and put his own name on the institution. Then, the courts ordered that his name come down. Now, his administration is floating the idea of tearing the whole building down.

It’s the presidential version of grabbing the ball and going home: if Trump can’t rename the Kennedy Center the way he wants, nobody gets to have it.

Congress created the Kennedy Center as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy and a national home for the performing arts. Taxpayers have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to repair and renovate it. That money was supposed to preserve a national institution — not bankroll a Trump vanity project with demolition as the fallback plan.

Congress should not wait around to discover just how far this childish tantrum goes. Tell Congress: Stop Trump and his handpicked Kennedy Center board from demolishing this national memorial.

The people entrusted with protecting the Kennedy Center are supposed to maintain it, modernize it, and keep it serving the public. Instead, Trump’s team is effectively saying: let us have our way with the building, or maybe there won’t be a building at all.

Congress should end this nonsense now. They can prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to demolish the Kennedy Center, require congressional approval before the building is destroyed or replaced, and make sure renovation money actually goes toward renovation.

Nobody objects to fixing an aging building. Repair the roof. Upgrade the systems. Modernize what needs modernizing. That is what hundreds of millions of public dollars are supposed to accomplish.

But Donald Trump does not get to take a national memorial away from the country because Congress, the courts, or the public refuse to give him everything he wants.

Add your name and tell Congress to put binding protections in place now — before Trump's attacks on the Kennedy Center become irreversible.

Thanks for all that you do,
Matt from the Swarm