Kennedy Center establishing new endowment in Trump’s name

The Kennedy Center is establishing a new endowment in President Trump’s name, according to CBS News.

The outlet reported Sunday that the center’s board of trustees, which is chaired by Trump and consists of many of his hand-picked members, approved the fund at a Thursday meeting. The Hill has reached out to the Kennedy Center and the White House for comment.

Over the weekend, workers at the performing arts center removed the president’s name from the exterior of the building — in compliance with a ruling from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in a case challenging the renaming of the center to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

The Trump administration confirmed its compliance in court documents filed around 11 a.m. EDT Saturday, after Cooper granted a 12-hour extension request that the administration sought over weather concerns.

Last year, the president removed the center’s leadership and appointed trustees who later nominated him as chair. The board in December voted to add Trump’s name to the center, which opened in 1971 as a monument to former President Kennedy.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio board member of the center, sued to block the renaming and planned two-year closure of the center — the latter of which was set to start on July 5 for renovations.

Cooper, an appointee of former President Obama, sided with Beatty in ruling that only Congress, which dedicated the center to Kennedy, can change the name. The federal judge also ruled that the board improperly voted to close the center for renovations.

A source with knowledge of the new endowment told CBS News it will focus on the “physical disrepair” of the building. The fund will support previously existing private endowments and the center’s $257 million in federal funding.