特朗普总统在关于该艺术中心名称及翻修问题的法律纠纷中，拒绝承诺不会拆除该中心。在最近接受《时代》杂志采访时，有人问他是否会承诺在未经国会同意的情况下不拆除该建筑。他回答说：“我什么都不承诺；让我们看看法庭上的裁决结果吧。但如果我确实重建了这个中心，并且承诺余生都会投入1亿美元来维持它的运营，那么我认为特朗普政府应该得到应有的认可。”
President Trump is refusing to commit to not demolishing the Kennedy Center amid the legal battle over the performing arts center's name and renovation. Trump, in a new interview with Time magazine, was asked if he would commit to not bringing in wrecking balls to take down the center without congressional consent. “I'm not committing to anything. We're going to see how it plays out in court,” he said. “But if I build it, and if I agree that for the rest of my life, I'm going to be putting up $100 million to have it open to people … then I think the Trump administration should be recognized.”
上个月，该中心的董事会决定立即关闭主楼进行翻修，因为官员们指出该中心“几周内就会面临严重的财政危机”，并且“继续使用该建筑已经变得不安全”。华盛顿巡回法院的裁决将决定是否可以在建筑上使用特朗普的名字。今年早些时候，特朗普的名字曾被添加到建筑上，但后来因法院判决而被移除。特朗普表示，在法院就中心名称的变更（是否包含他的名字）作出裁决之前，翻修工作不会进行。
The center’s board voted last month to immediately close the main building for renovations after officials indicated the center faces “certain fiscal collapse within weeks” and that it is “unsafe for continued occupancy.”A decision from the D.C. Circuit is will determine if Trump’s name can be added to the building. It was added earlier this year but then removed after a court ruling. Trump has since said renovations will not take place until the court rules on the center’s name change to include his name.
在《时代》杂志的采访中，特朗普称：“我愿意拯救这个中心，但它现在的状况实在太糟糕了。”他还说：“只有我才能拯救它。不过，肯尼迪中心最大的问题在于：虽然我可以重建它，但它最终还是会像许多类似机构一样亏损。看看卡内基音乐厅、纽约的那些艺术机构吧，它们每年都在亏损数千万美元。”
The president said in the Time interview that he’d be “willing to save it, but it's in terrible, terrible shape.”“Only I can save it, and I'll tell you the biggest problem with the Kennedy Center — I can build it, but it will lose like many of those places,” he said. “If you look at Carnegie Hall, New York, and all these places, the artsy places, they lose tens of millions of dollars.”
他对那位裁定必须将他的名字从建筑上移除的法官表示强烈不满，称其为“极端左翼的特朗普反对者”。他说：“我为什么要继续投资一个注定会亏损数亿美元、而且连我的名字都无法被保留的建筑呢？其实问题并不在我，而在于现任政府。”
He railed against the judge who ruled his name had to be taken off the building, calling him a “radical left Trump hater.”“Well, why would I want to stick with something that's going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars, and I'm not even recognized?” he said. “It's not me; it's the administration.”
最近，一些前肯尼迪中心员工在信中指责该中心的领导层在今年早些时候阻挠了原本计划中的防水维修工作。
A recent letter from former Kennedy Center employees accused the center’s leadership of stopping planned waterproofing repairs earlier this year.
代表这些举报人的律师大卫·赛德（David Seide）表示，该中心的执行主任马特·弗洛卡（Matt Floca）多年来一直知晓这些问题，但却拒绝进行维修。尽管该中心从国会获得了数百万美元的翻新资金，弗洛卡仍然决定不进行维修。赛德在致国会的信中写道：“证据表明，这些问题其实早已为人所知，但并未被列为优先处理的事项；早在一年多前，国会就已经拨款用于解决这些问题。”
David Seide, an attorney representing the whistleblowers, said the center’s executive director, Matt Floca, knew about the issues “for years” but canceled the repairs despite the center receiving millions from Congress for its renovation. “In sum, the evidence shows that the New Problems were in fact well known, were not considered to be high priorities and that millions in taxpayer funds were set aside more than a year ago to address them,” Seide wrote in the letter to Congress.
信中还指控弗洛卡将这笔资金挪用了，用于执行特朗普提出的“非计划性装饰性改造”——即将主楼的柱子重新漆成白色。弗洛卡对这些指控予以否认，称：“我们的观众、艺术家和员工的安全才是最重要的。”他说：“肯尼迪中心多年来一直知道屋顶的悬挑部分存在漏水问题，但我们直到今年夏天才了解到漏水造成的内部损坏程度已经非常严重。”
The letter also alleges Floca diverted the funds from Congress for repairs to make “unplanned cosmetic changes” requested by Trump to repaint the main building’s columns white last year. Floca has pushed back on the allegations, saying “the safety of our patrons, artists, and staff comes first.”“The Kennedy Center has known for years that the roof overhang leaked. What we did not know until this summer was how far the damage had spread inside it,” he said.