“A new photo shows President Donald Trump eyeing a poster that appears to reference the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts being demolished, hours after he warned that the building ‘will end up being ripped down’ if he is not properly recognized for his efforts to renovate it,” CNBC reports.

“The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to immediately close the performing arts venue, a few hours after a federal judge ruled that President Trump’s name could not be restored to its facade,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“It remains unclear when the venue might actually close since U.S. Federal Judge Christopher Cooper would have to lift his preliminary injunction against the closure — an action that will almost certainly be fought in court.”

Deadline: Trump says no renovations unless his name is restored.

“The second-most powerful man at the State Department put the brakes on a U.S. international exhibit featuring a bull statue because he worried it might look like Baal, a pagan god some associate with Satanic child sacrifice,” Axios reports.

“The anecdote illustrates the quirky interests of Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau, according to department critics, who say he spends too much time on social media focusing on the unimportant.”

“Leaders of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, installed by President Donald Trump, say the center is on the brink of bankruptcy and argue that putting the president’s name on its facade — and thus ensuring his fundraising efforts — may be the only way to avoid imminent and ‘certain fiscal collapse,'” the Washington Post reports.

“The bleak assessment is laid out in a 57-page packet distributed to the center’s board of trustees ahead of a special meeting Tuesday, when the Trump-led board is scheduled to consider two resolutions aimed at addressing twin crises confronting the national performing arts center: one financial, the other physical. Center officials say they could be unable to make payroll or pay routine maintenance contracts ‘within a matter of weeks’ and argue that publicly recognizing Trump could secure his help raising enough money to keep the institution afloat.”

“Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III is stepping down following more than a year of tension with President Trump over the way U.S. history is portrayed at the world’s largest museum and research complex,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Bunch’s departure marks one of the highest-profile shake-ups amid Trump’s broader cultural campaign to restore more ‘truth’ and ‘sanity’ to the retelling of American history.”

“Veterans and Democrats are escalating efforts to prevent construction on President Donald Trump’s planned arch as the anticipated start of site work approaches, arguing the project is illegal and would diminish the experience of visiting nearby Arlington National Cemetery,” the Washington Post reports.

NPR: Trump’s construction projects are transforming the capital.

The Washington Post profiles the brother of White House aide Natalie Harp, whose obsession with President Trump put her in the headlines this week.

Preston Harp lives in Masaya, a city in western Nicaragua, and is “an ardent supporter of the Sandinistas, a Marxist-influenced revolutionary movement that has dominated Nicaraguan politics for decades under President Daniel Ortega.”