The Kennedy Center Says It Faces 'Certain Fiscal Collapse' Within Weeks Unless Trump's Name Goes Back on the Building. The Board Votes Tuesday, Two and a Half Hours After It Faces the Judge Who Ordered the Letters Down.

The Kennedy Center's board of trustees is telling a federal court that the nation's performing arts center will be unable to make payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts "within a matter of weeks," and that the only way out is to put President Donald Trump's name back on the building. Two draft resolutions surfaced Monday in a court filing by Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat and ex officio trustee whose lawsuit forced the removal of Trump's name in June. The board is scheduled to vote on both at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"While actively considering alternative means of fiscal survival, President Trump has offered to step in and raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy during its much needed renovation," one resolution reads. It goes on to say that without "appropriate recognition" on the facade, "it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center." A 57-page board packet argues the inscription may be the only way to avert "certain fiscal collapse." ABC News, citing the court documents, reported the board expects Trump's fundraising could add $100 million to the $257 million Congress has already appropriated for the renovation.

The resolution lays out about 10 options for what would be carved in marble beneath the center's name. They include "Renovation and endowment overseen by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund" and "With Gratitude for Support from President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Kennedy Center Fund." The second resolution asks trustees to close the main building immediately, citing a Sept. 4 incident in which a section of plaster ceiling fell in the Grand Foyer. No one was hurt. Beatty's filing says the resolution's claim that the building is unsafe for occupancy incorrectly cites a consulting group's finding "which expressly disclaimed providing any such opinion."

The timing is pointed. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ruled in May that the letters spelling Trump's name had been added illegally after a December board vote, has a status conference in the case at 10 a.m. Tuesday, two and a half hours before the board meets. The board voted again in August to add the name and close the building for a yearslong renovation, then told Cooper it would not attempt to inscribe anything until Oct. 8 at the earliest. An appeals court declined to restore the name in the meantime. The Justice Department has told the appeals court that hundreds of millions of dollars in pledged private donations "will have to be immediately returned, or not received by the Center" if the name is not restored, citing the center's bylaws.

Roma Daravi, the center's vice president of public relations, called the ceiling failure "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," she said. A center spokesperson said the current board inherited financial mismanagement and that Trump's name had attracted new donors. The center's lawyers have separately argued that without extensive renovations the building "will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down."

The institution has been in turmoil since Trump installed loyalists on the board last year and they elected him chairman. Artists pulled out of scheduled performances and ticket sales fell. The documents released Monday were first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.