A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to attach his name to the Kennedy Center, ruling that the renowned Washington, D.C., performing arts institution must remain exclusively dedicated to President John F. Kennedy.
The same court also temporarily halted plans to shut down the center for a sweeping two-year renovation project that was scheduled to begin in July.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper has stated that the Kennedy Center’s founding statute clearly establishes it as a memorial to the slain president and does not authorize its governing board to rename it or create an additional public memorial through its own actions.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy,” Cooper specified. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
The Kennedy Center itself, however, swiftly signaled its intention to challenge the ruling. In a statement to NPR, Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president for public relations, said officials would carefully review the decision but maintained that the facility faces urgent structural and financial challenges requiring major intervention. VP Daravi noted that Congress had approved $257 million in funding secured by the Trump administration and said the institution remained committed to pursuing “every lawful avenue” to restore what she referred to as the “Trump Kennedy Center” as a premier cultural destination.
President Trump responded forcefully on Truth Social, criticizing Judge Cooper and arguing that the Kennedy Center is facing serious financial and physical deterioration. Trump suggested he would seek to transfer responsibility for overseeing the institution back to Congress if he were prevented from carrying out his vision for its revival. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else,” Trump wrote, “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.'”
As part of the ruling, Cooper ordered the removal within 14 days of all signs, websites and official materials referring to the institution as the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” the “Trump Kennedy Center,” or any similar variation.
The judge also temporarily blocked plans to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation. Trump and the center’s current board — whose voting members were appointed by the president, who assumed the chairmanship last year — had intended to begin construction shortly after the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
In his 94-page opinion, Cooper questioned the decision-making process behind the proposed closure, describing the renovation plans as “murky.” He wrote that board members lacked sufficient information before a March 16 meeting to make an informed judgment about shutting down the facility. The center had already begun scaling back operations and laying off much of its programming staff in anticipation of the closure.
The judge further challenged Trump’s public claims that a year-long review process involving contractors, arts experts and consultants had preceded the decision. According to Cooper, no such review took place in the manner described by the president.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in March by Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board whose voting rights were revoked last year. Following the ruling, Beatty hailed the decision as a victory for the rule of law and the institution’s independence.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump.”
However, it appears that the Kennedy Center still needs renovation.
