A new set of photographs has raised fresh questions about what Donald Trump and his allies may have planned for the Kennedy Center — and one ominous word appears to be visible on a document the president was examining aboard Air Force One.
Trump was photographed Wednesday night looking over a large poster board after returning from a rally in North Carolina.
Most of the document was obscured, but the portions visible in the photographs appear to reference the Kennedy Center, along with the word “DEMOLISHED” in large capital letters. The rest of the material is difficult to make out, leaving the exact meaning of the document unclear.
But given what Trump had said just hours earlier, the photographs are raising some uncomfortable questions about where the president sees the Kennedy Center heading.
Trump has already warned that the iconic performing arts venue could eventually be “taken down” if he does not receive the recognition he wants for its role in the center’s renovation.
“For me to go and fix it … and then have to subsidize it for years to come, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “Because frankly if we don’t do that, it’s going to close, it’ll end up being ripped down.”
That warning came one day after a federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center board from putting Trump’s name back on the building without congressional approval. Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board could not install memorials honoring Trump or make similar changes without Congress’s blessing.
The timing is hard to ignore.
Trump’s board had voted to immediately close the main Kennedy Center building for an extensive renovation, citing safety and financial concerns. The project could cost roughly $257 million, with Congress having already allocated funding for the work.
Trump, however, has tied his continued support for the project to the naming fight.
He has said the renovation cannot move forward until the courts resolve whether his name can be restored to the building. The administration is appealing Cooper’s ruling and could ultimately take the dispute to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center is now surrounded by fencing, and Rep. Joyce Beatty has asked the court to intervene over concerns about the closure and what could happen to the building during the shutdown. A federal judge has ordered the administration to explain whether the closure complies with an earlier court order.
And now there’s a photograph of Trump himself studying a document that appears to contain the word “DEMOLISHED.”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about what Trump was examining.
But they do add another strange piece to an increasingly contentious fight over the future of one of Washington’s most prominent cultural institutions.
And considering Trump’s own warning that the building could be “taken down,” that single word on the poster is likely to get a lot of attention.
