The Kennedy Center is set to create a new endowment named for President Donald Trump following a unanimous vote by the storied arts institution’s board.
A source familiar with the matter described the endowment as a first-of-its-kind private fund to benefit the performing arts center, which they said has “deep needs” and is in a “place of physical disrepair.” The new fund is meant to supplement the $257 million Congress allocated for the center last year.
“The establishment of the Trump Kennedy Center Fund is intended to recognize President Donald J. Trump’s significant contributions and dedication to America’s premier cultural center,” Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations at the center, told NOTUS in a statement.
The center’s board, which Trump stacked with allies after installing himself as president, voted on Thursday to establish the fund, a development that was first reported by CBS News on Sunday.
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Construction workers ripped Trump’s name from the front of the building over the weekend after a judge denied a last-minute effort by the president’s allies to keep his name on the building’s marquee. Large crowds gathered outside the center over the weekend chanting “Take it down” as construction workers readied to remove the letters.
The center’s name has, however, remained covered by a tarp since Trump’s name was removed.
Daravi told NOTUS that despite the covering, the performing arts center remains “fully compliant with the court’s directive.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the center’s board of trustees who filed the initial lawsuit against the name change, celebrated the judge’s decision by posting a video of herself mimicking Trump’s signature dance move in the distinctive red hallways of the Kennedy Center with the caption, “POV: When you protect the Kennedy Center.”
Beatty did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the center’s new endowment under Trump’s name.
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