WASHINGTON — After the debate over whether President Donald Trump’s name should be on the Kennedy Center ended in court, the board overseeing the performing arts venue has decided to close the historic location.

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Several media outlets, including The Associated Press and The Washington Post, reported on the vote to close the Kennedy Center, citing multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

Trump confirmed the news, writing on Truth Social that the board voted “almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction.”

He said that unless the renaming is permitted, the work would not be done, adding that he had put $17 million he raised into the center’s account to keep it afloat.

Judge Christopher Cooper ruled earlier that the Board of Trustees could not add the president’s name to the venue, The Washington Post reported.

He made the ruling three months ago, saying it was illegal for the board to add Trump’s name to the building and ordering the trustees to remove it.

They complied at the time, but left tarps covering the facade. Last month, the board voted to add Trump’s name back on the building, with Cooper saying that the plan also broke the law, “which reflects Congress’s decision to memorialize President Kennedy, and no one else, at the Center bearing his name,” the Post reported on Tuesday.

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” he added.

The board met Tuesday and voted to close the Kennedy Center’s main building, the AP and Post reported. They said they have no more money to pay for operations after exhausting funding and would not be able to pay employees or cover routine maintenance “within a matter of weeks,” the Post reported.

Trump had earlier posted on Truth Social that Cooper’s rulings would mean “the Building is destined to doom.”

The center’s vice president of public relations, Roma Daravi, posted that “This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there’s no justification for further delays in restoring America’s cultural center,” referring to a portion of the ceiling falling earlier this month.

A construction consultant and the center’s director “consider the main building to be unsafe for continued occupancy, and anticipate further risk to the public and employees if the building is not immediately closed and renovations begun,” a draft resolution stated, according to NBC News.

In February, Trump proposed closing the center for two years to allow for renovations, and the board, which the president chairs, approved it the next month. Cooper blocked that plan in May, saying that the board did not have enough information or weigh the consequences of closing the facility, The Washington Post reported.

After a more thorough review, the board approved the shutdown again last month.

Check back for more on this developing story.

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