Appeals court rejects bid to restore Trump’s name to Kennedy Center

President Donald Trump’s name won’t be returning to the Kennedy Center anytime soon.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Wednesday against the arts institution’s motion to stay a lower court’s ruling that Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center pending its appeal.

On May 29, 2026, a federal district court judge ordered, among other things, the removal of Trump’s name from the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and other similar physical signage, as well as “the removal of his name as part of the Center’s title on the official website” and the removal of any trademark applications that included Trump’s name in the Kennedy Center designation. The judge ruled in favor of Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who in December sued Trump and the Kennedy Center board, arguing that the decision to add Trump’s name to the center was illegal.

Workers removed “Donald J. Trump” from the Kennedy Center building on June 13 in accordance with the court order – but that part of the center remains obscured by large tarps for now.

The Kennedy Center appealed the decision, with Justice Department lawyers arguing on behalf of the center that, among other things, removing Trump’s name “threatens to hamper the Center’s fundraising efforts and contribute to the Center’s financial decline.”

On July 8, the three-judge panel of the court of appeal rejected the request to stay the appeal “because [appellants] failed to show how they would be irreparably harmed in the absence of a stay.

Regarding the claim that the Kennedy Center would suffer financial harm if it was not allowed to reinstate Trump’s name, the appeals court said in its ruling that the center had “failed to support this assertion with specific facts or evidence. They offer only conclusive assertions by the Kennedy Center executive director that were made in a statement without factual basis.”

Tarps hang from scaffolding outside the Kennedy Center on June 13 after workers removed President Donald Trump’s name from the building. Getty Images

“Today’s decision once again affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful,” Beatty said in a statement Wednesday. “His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial that belongs to the American people. Now is the time for the Trump administration to accept this, follow the law and remove the tarps.”

“The DC Circuit’s decision means that Donald Trump’s name will remain removed from the Kennedy Center for the foreseeable future, exactly as the law requires and as Congress intended when it created it,” said Norm Eisen, co-founder and board member of Democracy Defenders Action, and Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior attorney at the Washington Litigation Group, who are representing Beatty in the case. “This is a great victory for the rule of law and the American people’s decision to honor the memory of John F. Kennedy. It is also a clear reminder that public institutions are not a personal branding opportunity for any president.”

Representatives for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following the judge’s ruling in May, Trump said he would order the Commerce Department to transfer management of the Kennedy Center to Congress. But the Kennedy Center appealed shortly after.

Trump said earlier this year that the Kennedy Center would close its doors for two years starting July 4, 2026, to undergo a “complete reconstruction.” In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also blocked Trump and the center from taking further action to close the facility for repairs.

According to Trump’s May 29 social media post, because “radical left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite president, ME, than saving a dying performing arts center,” his administration “will work with Congress to return this failing institution to them so they can decide what to do with it.”

Judge Cooper, in his ruling, said a 1964 federal law was “crystal clear” in establishing the arts center’s name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” and that his board had no right to add another name to the building. “The Court concluded that the Council exceeded its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center in honor of President Trump,” Cooper wrote in the decision. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

In December 2025, the board of directors of the Kennedy Center, chosen by Trump, voted “unanimously” to add Trump’s name to the organization, which they said would be known as the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

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