President Donald Trump hit a major hurdle on Thursday in his effort to remake the Kennedy Center in his own image.

The closure of the Washington, D.C., theater and monument was attributed to safety concerns. Trump's handpicked executive director said he does not believe the building is "safe." After a powerful storm with hurricane-level winds swept through the capital in early September, a large chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling. For roughly 10 days, only a rope cordoned off the area where the plaster fell. Fencing did not begin going up around the Kennedy Center until this week, fueling concerns that Trump might bulldoze the venue just as he did the East Wing of the White House.

Norm Eisen, a lawyer with the Democracy Defenders Fund, told National Public Radio that the driving force behind closing and dismantling the building is "embarrassment."

"Donald Trump slapped his name on this building, and it drove artists and audiences away and cratered the very successful ongoing operation of the Kennedy Center," Eisen said. "He's closing it to cover up the fact of his mismanagement."

Congress has already allocated $257 million for the repairs Trump said the building needed, with renovations planned in stages so that performances could continue. Instead, the Kennedy Center is left with no season at all after so many performers pulled out. The distinction is significant for a working venue: the funded, staged plan was designed to keep performances going during repairs, while an empty season halts the institution's programming outright.

Eisen said there is no reason to close the building, "and there's certainly no reason to demolish it."

The Kennedy Center a major multi-million-dollar expansion and renovation in 2019, adding an annex and undertaking other projects. The scope of that work has raised larger questions about why Trump has painted the building as dilapidated.

Under the judge's ruling, 30 days' notice is required in advance if there is a demolition order or any plan to "significantly overhaul" the building. In practice, that notice window means any demolition or major overhaul cannot happen on short notice: a plan would have to be on the table a full month before work could begin, while the litigation already under way over the center continues in parallel.

"The judge has made very clear, including in our repeated wins on the naming of the building, that Donald Trump can't rename it for himself," Eisen said. "What an absurd suggestion that Congress has legislated the operations of this building, naming it. Otherwise, that's an emergency order."

NPR host Michel Martin raised the example of the White House East Wing, which Trump demolished last year. Given that episode, fears have grown that the Kennedy Center, along with whatever other buildings Trump wants, could face a similar fate.

"Do you think that the administration is already trying to cause permanent changes or damage to the building, and do you have any confidence that you and other litigators addressing this can keep the Kennedy Center from facing a different fate than the White House East Wing has already done?" Martin asked.

Eisen agreed that this is what is under way.

"I do think that the administration is contemplating demolition out of embarrassment and humiliation," the lawyer said. "First, because affixing Donald Trump's name destroyed the artist and audience base, and second, because the court won't let him keep his name on there, and he's saying the quiet part out loud."

Eisen noted that, unlike with the East Wing, litigation over the Kennedy Center was already in place.

"We had a judge assigned," he explained. "We immediately went to the judge. We got an order before the demolition had substantially commenced. There has been some glancing damage that they started to do. We got that order, and the Kennedy Center will not meet the fate of the East Wing."

"We worked overnight, as you heard; there was a blizzard of motions by our legal team, and we succeeded," he added. "There will be no demolition, Donald Trump's name will never go on the building, and it will never be demolished."