Renewed calls for Trump-backed Kennedy Center repairs after part of foyer ceiling falls

A chunk of ceiling fell inside a main hallway of the Kennedy Center, which underscores the need to shut down the historic arts venue for renovations sought by President Trump, a spokesperson said.

No one was injured when a piece of the ceiling inside the Kennedy Center's grand foyer partially collapsed Friday evening, said Roma Daravi, the center's vice president for public relations.

Photos provided by the center showed a large hole in the high ceiling and debris littering the red carpet in part of the hallway that connects the Kennedy Center's three main performance auditoriums. The damage occurred during stormy weather in Washington.

"The reality is, the place is falling apart and @realDonaldTrump wants to fix it," Daravi said in a social media post with the photos.

"There is no legitimate reason to further halt the renovations," Daravi said in another post. "The longer the delay, the worse the infrastructure gets."

CBS News reached out to Daravi for further comment.

The Kennedy Center's Trump-aligned board is fighting in court to move forward with plans to add Mr. Trump's name to the building's facade and to close the center for two years as it undergoes $250 million in renovations.

Daravi called the partial ceiling collapse Friday "another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed."

"This structural failure stems from decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership, and there's no justification for further delays in restoring America's cultural center," Daravi said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Mr. Trump's efforts to add his name and make other big changes to the center established to honor President John F. Kennedy following his assassination are just part of Mr. Trump's broader second-term agenda to reshape Washington.

The president has already demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom. He also plans a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. Construction at the site is to start in the coming weeks, and the project is expected to take two to three years, with an intense 20-hour-a-day, year-round work schedule, the National Park Service has said. A renovated golf course along the Potomac River is also in the works.

The projects have drawn pushback from Democrats and preservation groups. Earlier this year, one group of veterans sued over the arch, arguing the Trump administration lacks congressional approval to build it.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that Mr. Trump's name had been added to the Kennedy Center illegally and ordered that it be taken down. He also blocked the administration from closing the venue for renovations.

Now before the judge is an August vote by the Kennedy Center's board to return Mr. Trump's name to the facade so reads: "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump." Justice Department lawyers have argued donations for renovations will dry up without Mr. Trump's name on the building.

Other changes have moved forward. Last week, the Kennedy Center took down a large stick figure sculpture known as Blue that had stood outside the center in 2019. The Kennedy Center gave no reason for its removal, but said in a statement "we are honored to have been stewards" of the late sculptor Joel Shapiro's work.

Grace Terpstra of Keep the KC, a community group fighting the Kennedy Center's closure, said she suspects the board will seize on what appears to be limited ceiling damage "to make the point that the whole thing needs to be shut down, that it's going to fall on everybody."

"I think they'll try to make it into a bigger thing and show that they've found a lot of other things," said Terpstra, the group's founder.