By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – This year’s Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Washington’s Capital One Arena as the Trump administration faces legal and congressional challenges over plans to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a center spokesperson said on Friday.
• This will be the first time the honors are not held at the center’s Opera House since the awards’ inception in 1978.
• The spokesperson said the event will be held on December 7 and that honorees will be announced at a later date.
• The Kennedy Center Honors is widely seen as one of the top US honors for achievement in the performing arts.
• Members of the US Congress are considering legislation to stop President Donald Trump from demolishing the center.
• US District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the Trump administration last month to provide at least 30 days’ notice before taking any steps toward tearing down the Washington landmark.
• “I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down,” Trump told reporters last month.
• The center’s board — largely appointed by the Republican president — had voted to install his name onto the facility established by Congress and opened in 1971 as a memorial to slain President John F. Kennedy.
• Cooper ordered the Kennedy Center in May to remove Trump’s name, ruling that the venue “must be named for, and is meant to honor, President Kennedy alone.”
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in WashingtonEditing by Rod Nickel)
