US senator blocks bill barring Trump from demolishing Kennedy Center without congressional approval | Kennedy Center

A Republican senator blocked a bipartisan bill that would have blocked Donald Trump from demolishing the Kennedy Center without congressional approval.

Utah’s Mike Lee objected Monday night when Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley asked the Senate to pass the Presidential Memorials Protection Act by unanimous consent. The bill, co-authored with Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, would have banned the demolition of any presidential memorial designated by Congress, including the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, unless lawmakers explicitly approved it.

“First he destroyed its programming, and now he wants to destroy the building itself,” Merkley wrote in a statement. “All because the law prohibits Trump from putting his name on the building.” He called the president’s threats “straight out of the authoritarian model.”

Murkowski, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the center, said last week that lawmakers had authorized and funded major renovations, but “what was not authorized was a demolition of the Kennedy Center.”

The fight over the Kennedy Center has been one of the longest legal dramas of Trump’s second term. It began when the president took control of the center shortly after returning to power, gutting the board and installing allies while attacking what he called “woke” programming.

Trump’s hand-picked board voted last December to rename the venue Trump-Kennedy Center, but in May, federal Judge Christopher Cooper declared the change illegal and ended a planned two-year closure. On September 15, Cooper rejected a second attempt to put Trump’s name on the building, and Trump said the $257 million renovation would not happen unless the decision was reversed.

In August, Justice Department lawyers warned in court that the building could deteriorate to the point of collapse, and floated an outdoor amphitheater to replace it. A judge has since ordered 30 days’ notice for any demolition plans, and the center’s manager told the court the building would remain standing.

Lee has been closely aligned with Trump since 2020 and supported his efforts to overturn the result of that year’s election. More recently, he repeatedly introduced the Trump-backed Save Act in the Senate, which would impose voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, and in April urged Trump to force lawmakers to return to Washington to end a partial shutdown and pass it.

“Democrats should join us in lowering the cost of living and securing America’s elections instead of wasting the Senate’s time with partisan scaremongering that they haven’t even attempted to put through the proper committee process,” Lee told the Guardian.