Trump erupts at Kennedy Center board meeting after judge blocks plan to add his name

The Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close the performing arts venue for renovations after a tense meeting involving US President Donald Trump, according to CNN.

Three sources told CNN that Trump called in and confronted Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, whose lawsuit has prevented his name from being added to the building.

Beatty later told CNN that Trump “threw a tantrum” and made the dispute “personal” after she won a court ruling earlier Tuesday.

“We will go back to court as much as we need to, because what he is proposing is unlawful and he just shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it,” Beatty told CNN’s The Source.

US District Judge Casey Cooper had blocked the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees’ latest proposal to add an inscription thanking Trump for renovations and rename the centre’s campus after him.

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

The Kennedy Center cannot immediately close, however. The board must first overturn an earlier court order requiring the institution to remain open while Beatty’s lawsuit continues.

The Justice Department is expected to seek that reversal by Friday.

The Kennedy Center appealed Cooper’s ruling over Trump’s name to the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday evening.