A federal judge has halted the Trump administration's plan to shutter the Kennedy Center for two years of repairs and ordered the removal of the president's name from the building and its website, dealing a significant legal blow to efforts reshaping the iconic performing arts venue.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued a 94-page decision Friday, coinciding with President John F. Kennedy's birthday, that rejected the administration's argument that renaming the institution was anything less than a formal name change. The board, packed with Trump appointees, lacked the authority to alter the Kennedy Center's legal designation on its own authority, the judge ruled.
"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," Cooper wrote. "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."
The administration had attempted to reframe the change as merely adding a secondary designation, comparing it to clerical adjustments of agency names. Cooper rejected that framing outright. The lettering on the building now reads "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," placing Trump's name first and relegating Kennedy's to second position, the judge noted.
"The rechristening is not, as Defendants suggest, like calling the 'Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection' the 'Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,' which is merely a clerical rearrangement," Cooper wrote. "The 'Trump Kennedy Center' label adds an entirely new name to the Center's formal title and relegates President Kennedy's name to second place. If that is not a renaming, what is?"
The administration has 14 days to remove Trump's name from the building and its website.
Trump responded sharply on Truth Social, signaling a retreat from his leadership role at the institution he claimed as board chairman last year. He accused the court decision of prioritizing danger to the public and suggested he lacked interest in pursuing a "hopeless journey" with the center.
"I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight," Trump posted. "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."
Trump said his administration would work with Congress to hand responsibility for the Kennedy Center back to lawmakers, and instructed the Commerce Department to facilitate the transfer of operational control.
The ruling also blocked the board's decision to close the facility for renovations beginning after July 4. Cooper found the vote to shut down operations for two years was an "ill-informed and seemingly preordained decision" made without adequate deliberation or consideration of the center's statutory obligations and potential harms to programming and memorial functions.
However, the judge did not categorically prohibit future closures. He noted that repair work remains necessary and can proceed even with the center open, and that the board could pursue closure again if it followed proper procedures and independently balanced its obligations in a prudent manner.
"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," Cooper wrote. "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."
The lawsuit was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who serves as an ex officio member of the board through her congressional role. Beatty called the decision a vindication of lawful authority over presidential overreach.
"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," Beatty said in a statement.
The Kennedy Center litigation unfolds as part of a broader campaign to attach Trump's name to federal property and symbols. His administration has added his name to federal buildings, military vessels, passports, and a drug pricing website. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent disclosed plans to print $250 bills bearing Trump's face if Congress authorizes the measure.
The Kennedy Center's board dismissed the ruling as temporary and signaled plans to challenge it. Spokesperson Roma Daravi said the center remained confident an appeal would succeed and that the institution's need for urgent restoration remained undeniable.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This ruling shows there are still legal guardrails on presidential power, but the fight over the Kennedy Center's identity is far from settled."
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