Trump’s name to be removed from Kennedy Center, judge orders
The future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was once again in limbo after a federal judge ordered Friday to remove President Trump’s name from the building’s exterior within two weeks and halt the Trump administration’s planned closure of the venue for two years.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s 94-page ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in December by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center 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, close and gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” according to court documents.
“Today’s decision confirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement. he said. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not Donald Trump. He desecrated this sacred monument out of his own arrogance. I am proud to fight for the rule of law and protect this sacred institution.”
Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president for public affairs, said the organization plans to carefully consider its decision to halt the impending closure.
Regarding the order to remove Trump’s name, Daravi said, “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.” “The fact is that the Center is in need of urgent and significant restoration, a fact that even the plaintiff acknowledges.”
Davri added that Trump received $257 million from Congress for renovations under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“The resources are available and we are committed to pursuing every legal avenue to ensure that the Trump Kennedy Center becomes a national cultural icon that all Americans can enjoy,” Davri said.
Trump first announced his proposal to close the center on July 4 in a social media post in February, calling the historic venue “dilapidated” and promising a “major renovation.” This move spread to the art world, which was under the influence of the radical changes implemented at the center for a year after Trump fired the board of directors and appointed himself president in one of the first acts of his second term.
Ten months later, after many artist cancellations and leadership departures, Trump’s hand-picked board of directors voted to add Trump’s name to the building directly above Kennedy’s.
In Friday’s decision, Cooper addressed the renaming issue firmly.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic charter makes clear that the Center will be named after President Kennedy and may not bear any other official name or public memorial based on unilateral declaration by the Board of Directors. Congress gave its name to the Kennedy Center, and only Congress can change that,” Cooper wrote.
He was more cautious about the pending closure, leaving room for a future closure if warranted, noting that “the preliminary injunction will not prevent the Center from moving forward with the capital repair work it has planned, which the records sorely need. Nor will it categorically prohibit the Board from closing the Center should it come to that decision again after prudently independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center.”
While Cooper’s decision presents a victory for defenders of the Kennedy Center, as it did before Trump’s interventions, it also introduces a new set of problems as the center canceled nearly all of its programming after July 4. The National Symphony Orchestra is also working hard to find alternative venues to perform during the proposed closure.
