Trump Seen with 'Kennedy Center Demolished' Poster

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Anderson Cooper (1:02)

Good evening from the newsroom tonight. Is the president of the United States about to tear down the Kennedy Center because he can't get his name stuck on the building? This is what he said late yesterday about ripping it down and wanting recognition to avoid that.

Donald Trump (1:16)

For the Trump administration, for me, to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it, 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. It's in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape. You see steel falling down. You see plaster falling off ceilings. You see a lot of dangers.

It's been very badly maintained for 25 years.

Anderson Cooper (1:47)

He said it'll end up being ripped down as if buildings are just magically ripped down. National landmarks don't demolish themselves. He would be the one ripping it down. And if that weren't clear enough, take a look at these images of him from several hours later on arrival back in Washington being shown a poster that appears to read Kennedy Center demolished. Housing official Bill Pulte, whom the president has relied on to make legal trouble for his adversaries, was later seen bringing two poster sized boards off Air Force One.

Today, a federal judge took the president seriously enough to order him not to do that or anything major to the Kennedy Center without 30 days notice. Now, I just want to point out that in Washington, there are no golden statues of John F. Kennedy or other grand monuments to him. There's just the quiet eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery and what's called a living memorial to his and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's love for the performing arts. Congress decided to make the Kennedy Center his memorial and they wanted it to be a gift to the public, a place of music and dance, theater and the arts, some place people could be uplifted, transported by what President Kennedy treasured, not a place to venerate him. And now this president seems willing to kill that vision, kill that commemoration of President Kennedy unless his name is stuck on the building, which he has already tried to do, putting the name alongside or even above, as you see there, the name of the president who was actually murdered. He's already stacked the institution's board with his friends and cronies to do it. Maria Bartiromo, for one, Pam Bondi, a real creative bunch. But today, district judge Christopher Cooper ordered that board, which the president himself chairs, to provide at least 30 days' notice of any new construction or demolition. He did it after an emergency filing by Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, the only board member the president cannot replace.

In it, she questions the board's motive for closing the main building, which is said to be for safety reasons and only temporary. Quoting the filing, defendants' rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the center permanently. The filing continues, defendants have now told the court that they will close the center not just for seven days, but indefinitely until they decide when the center should reopen. This directly contravenes the court's preliminary injunction.

Now, it's important to mention here that Congresswoman Beatty does not dispute that the Kennedy Center needs work. Something she told me on the broadcast last night and seen in Jake Tapper this evening.

Joyce Beatty (4:11)

What I can tell you is we know that the facility needs renovations. I want to be very clear on this. And that did not start with Donald Trump. It started with the previous administration. The Congress allocated $257 million for us to do renovations.