The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Thursday to inscribe President Donald Trump’s name on the building and close the main building for two years for renovations, according to a statement from Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, and her lawyers.

The board voted to inscribe “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” under the building’s name, according to Beatty, an ex-officio board member who filed the original lawsuit seeking to remove Trump’s name from the building and block the closure for renovations.

A legal challenge to the proposed inscription is likely, given the news comes two months after the president’s name was taken off the facade following a federal judge’s ruling that its name — which was approved by Congress — cannot be changed. In a statement Thursday, Beatty called the news “a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling” and said she would “continue to fight for this treasured national monument.”

Spokespeople for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s questions Thursday afternoon.

In a statement provided to MS NOW, White House spokesperson Liz Huston said, “Under President Trump’s bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world.”

The news was first reported by The New York Times.

A source familiar with the meeting told MS NOW that the proposed inscription was not included in the agenda that members were provided two days before the meeting. At least one board member said she was not given advance notice that it would be brought up on Thursday.

The board also voted Thursday to close the main building for renovations. When he blocked the name change, D.C. District Judge Christopher Cooper also blocked an initial attempt to close the building in July. He called the move “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” He also ruled that the board could not move forward with future attempts to close the center until they had done their due diligence.

The resolution the board passed Thursday also proposed honoring the president for restoring the center “from the brink of disaster,” including by potentially naming the grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” the Times reported.

“It is hereby resolved that the center desires to recognize and honor President Trump’s existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the center by all legal means,” the resolution said, according to the Times.

The vote is the latest show of the board’s fealty to Trump. The president has stacked the board with his allies, who voted last year to rename the building the Trump-Kennedy Center, drawing fierce backlash from critics. Crews removed Trump’s name from the building in June and covered the original lettering with tarps hung over scaffolding.

“The Board is again openly flouting a court order in voting to put President Trump’s name on the building to recognize his construction genius — a laughable idea given his abject failure in his efforts to renovate the Reflecting Pool,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., another ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board, said in a statement Thursday evening. “The decision to close the Center is clearly an effort to cover up the fact that President Trump and his minions have driven the Center into the ground, with plunging revenues and fleeing performers.”

Jesse Rodriguez, Akayla Gardner and Lisa Rubin contributed reporting.

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