Kennedy Center Executive Warns Removing Trump Name Risks $150 Million in Fundraising
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · May 27
Kennedy Center Executive Warns Removing Trump Name Risks $150 Million in Fundraising
6 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · May 27
Matt Floca told a federal judge that stripping Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center would sever donor ties and make trust-funded programming and operations financially nonviable.
Floca said Trump has already helped raise tens of millions of dollars and has committed to bring in $150 million from private donors over the next two years.
The declaration answers a lawsuit filed by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who argues Congress intended the building to remain solely a memorial to President John F. Kennedy and never authorized a Trump renaming.
The naming fight comes as Trump, now board chairman, pushes more conservative programming and a two-year restoration project starting in July that CNN said could cut roughly 75 to 175 of the center’s 300 jobs.
That broader overhaul has also coincided with falling ticket sales and cancellations, underscoring the financial and political stakes of the court battle.
Is the Kennedy Center's closure for renovation or a response to its reported financial and attendance decline?
Why was the Kennedy Center’s historic African Room, an international gift, allegedly dismantled under its new leadership?