MAY 30, 2026
Federal Judge Orders Trump's Name Removed From Kennedy Center, Rules Only Congress Can Rename It
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Friday ordered the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to remove President Trump's name from its building and official materials within 14 days, ruling that the 1964 law establishing the center makes it "crystal clear" that only Congress can change its name. The judge also temporarily blocked the center's planned two-year closure for renovations, which had been set to begin in early July. The ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio board member whose voting rights on the board had been stripped.
The center's board voted unanimously in December 2025 to rename the venue "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," with new lettering affixed to the building's white marble facade in less than a day. Trump, who became chairman of the board in February 2025 after removing 18 trustees appointed by former President Biden, has described overhauling the center as a centerpiece of his effort to reshape Washington's cultural institutions.
Judge Cooper, sitting in Federal District Court in Washington, anchored his decision in the legislation signed into law in 1964, just two months after President Kennedy's assassination, which designated the center as "the sole national memorial to the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy within the city of Washington and its environs." In his 94-page ruling, released on what would have been Kennedy's birthday, Cooper wrote that "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it." He also found the board's decision to close the center for renovations "murky" and "preordained," noting that board members lacked sufficient information before their March 16 vote and that no review of the kind Trump had publicly described had taken place.
The Kennedy Center said it would appeal the ruling. Spokeswoman Roma Daravi noted that $257 million for restoration had been secured by Trump and approved by Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and said the board remained "committed to pursuing every lawful avenue" to restore the building. The center's executive director had separately argued to the court that removing Trump's name would "fundamentally destabilize" fund-raising efforts.