Barbra Streisand Condemns Trump’s ‘Unchecked Ego’ Over Kennedy Center Name Battle

The Kennedy Center has stood as a living memorial to John F. Kennedy since Congress renamed the National Cultural Center in his honor in 1964. On Thursday, Barbra Streisand, one of the institution’s most celebrated honorees, published a statement on her official website condemning President Donald Trump’s handling of the venue, which has been locked in a legal fight over whether his name can be added to its facade.

“You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego,” Streisand wrote, according to Variety. She called the ongoing battle “galling and painful to witness” and tied it directly to her 2008 induction into the 31st annual class of Kennedy Center Honorees.

“For me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy.”

: Barbra Streisand, in a statement posted on her official website

The statement came a day after photojournalists captured Trump aboard Air Force One examining a poster that read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED,” The Hollywood Reporter reported. On Wednesday, the president said the institution would be “ripped down” without his support and described it as being in “bad shape, very dangerous shape,” according to CNN via Billboard.

The center’s Trump-appointed board voted Tuesday to close the performing arts complex indefinitely for repairs. That vote followed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocking the board from returning Trump’s name to the building. Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name, ordering it removed; the institution complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where the name had been displayed, the Associated Press reported.

On Thursday, Cooper ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes, including demolition. The ruling came after the center closed without notice Wednesday, citing “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration,” according to executive director Matt Floca. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex-officio board member, had sought an emergency hearing to prevent what she called the building’s “unlawful closing.”

Streisand’s statement traced the dispute from Trump’s attempt to place his name alongside Kennedy’s on the entrance, which she said met “widespread opposition from artists and much of the public,” through the tarp order and the board’s repeated lobbying. “And now, a thoroughly defeated Trump has announced that the Kennedy Center is being closed for what the completely stacked board describes as a major renovation,” she wrote. “Oddly, when Trump’s name was still on the building, there was no discussion of closing it!”

The performer, an EGOT winner, also included a photo of herself with Kennedy in 1963 and an image from the 2008 honors ceremony with Morgan Freeman. She closed by urging Americans to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.