Trump cannot add name to Kennedy Center, judge says

The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on May 16, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Al Drago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A federal judge on Friday barred President Donald Trump from adding his name to that of the Kennedy Center, as he did at the end of December, ruling that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

Judge Christopher Cooper ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the center’s facade and other sites within two weeks.

Cooper also temporarily prevented the two-year closure of the Washington, D.C., performing arts landmark, which had been renamed the “Trump Kennedy Center” in December, for renovations at the request of the president, who chairs its board of directors.

Cooper’s order follows a lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio and ex-officio trustee of the Kennedy Center, whose civil complaint challenged the name change, the center’s closing for renovations and the board’s disenfranchisement in May 2025.

Cooper, in his ruling, said the Kennedy Center board failed to balance its obligations to the center in deciding to close its doors for renovations.

But the board might be able to close its doors for that purpose “after independently and prudently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center,” the judge wrote in the ruling in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Cooper also said his preliminary injunction “will not prevent the Center from moving forward with its planned major repair work.”

Trump later lambasted Cooper for the decision, but seemed resigned to his name being removed from the Kennedy Center, which the president called in serious need of repair.

“We’re going to work with Congress to return this failed institution to them so they can decide what to do with it,” Trump said in a Truth Social article.

“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself!” wrote the president. “I cannot be involved in a situation where danger to the public can flourish in plain sight.”

The board’s vote to rename the center came ten months after Trump removed several board directors and appointed himself as trustee. The center’s facade was changed to reflect this decision, as were other signs around the facility.

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“Rep. Beatty is entitled to summary judgment on the name change issue,” Cooper wrote Friday.

“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute clearly states that the Center must bear the name of the President [John] Kennedy, and he may bear no other official name or public memorial based on the Council’s unilateral decision,” the judge wrote.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

(LR) Appointed Trustee Mindy Levine speaks with U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) as she awaits the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump during a luncheon with members of the Trump Kennedy Center Board of Trustees in the East Room of the White House March 16, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Cooper also ordered that Beatty regain his voting rights as an ex-officio director.

“The Center’s organic statute makes no distinction between the powers of executive directors and those ex officio,” Cooper wrote.

“Nothing in the law allows the Board to draw a categorical distinction between the two as to the fundamental rights of directors,” the judge wrote.

“And stripping ex-officio trustees of their voting rights runs counter to the common law trust principles embodied in the law, principles which presumptively place trustees on an equal footing when it comes to participating in trust administration.”

Beatty, in a statement, said: “Today’s decision rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no legal basis. »

“The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not Donald Trump,” Beatty said.

“He 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.”

Beatty’s lawyers, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior counsel for the Washington Litigation Group, said in a statement: “This decision sends an important message that the rule of law matters.

“This is a major blow against the corruption of the Trump administration,” they said.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, which is defending Trump in the suit, said: “The Department is pleased that the court has rejected challenges to the Trump-Kennedy Center renovations, and we will continue to defend President Trump’s ability to restore the Center to its former glory as the best performing arts center in the country – and indeed the world.”

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