Trump’s name to be removed from Kennedy Center, judge orders

The future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts once again hangs in the balance after a ruling handed down Friday by a federal judge ordered the removal of President Trump’s name from the exterior of the building within two weeks and a halt to the Trump administration’s planned two-year closure of the venue.

The 94-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper came in response to a lawsuit filed in December by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. The lawsuit was later amended to include a request for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction challenging the Trump administration’s “unlawful efforts to rename, shutter and gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” according to court documents.

Trump railed against the decision Friday in a Truth Social post, suggesting that he would back away from the institution.

“We are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it,” he wrote. “I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight. Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’”

It remains unclear if this means that Trump plans to step down as chairman.

“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said the organization plans to carefully review the decision to halt the upcoming closure.

“We are confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center,” Daravi said regarding the order to remove Trump’s name. “The reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration — a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges.”

Davri added that Trump had already secured $257 million from Congress for the renovation as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“The resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy,” Davri said.

Trump first announced the center’s proposed July 4 closure in a February social media post calling the storied venue “dilapidated” and promising a “major renovation.” The move ricocheted across an arts world already reeling from a year’s worth of drastic changes implemented at the center after Trump fired the board and had himself appointed chairman, in one of the first acts of his second term.

Ten months later, after many artist cancellations and leadership defections, Trump’s handpicked board voted to add Trump’s name to the building, just above Kennedy’s.

In his Friday ruling Cooper addressed the renaming issue in no uncertain terms.

“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.

He was more circumspect about the pending closure, leaving room for a future closure should it be warranted, noting that “the preliminary injunction will not prevent the Center from moving forward with the capital repair work it has planned, which the record demonstrates is sorely needed. Nor will it categorically prohibit the Board from closing the Center should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.”

Although Cooper’s ruling presents a win for defenders of the Kennedy Center as it was prior to Trump’s interventions, it also introduces a host of new problems since the center has canceled almost all of its programming after July 4. The National Symphony Orchestra has also been hard at work securing alternate venues at which to perform during the proposed closure.