A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump from affixing his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has temporarily halted plans to close the center for a planned two-year renovation. The decision, issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, says the Kennedy Center was established and named by Congress for President John F. Kennedy and cannot be given another formal public name by the board alone.
In his ruling, Cooper wrote that “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. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” The judge ordered that all signage and online references to the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” the “Trump Kennedy Center,” or similar labels be removed within 14 days.
The ruling also enjoins the center from closing in early July for what the administration and the center’s voting board members — all selected by the president, who became the board chair last year — described as a two-year restoration. Cooper called the renovation plans “murky” and said in a 94-page opinion that none of the board members had adequate information before the March 16 meeting to make a well-considered decision to shutter the venue. The Kennedy Center has already been winding down programming and has dismissed most programming staff in advance of the proposed closure.
Cooper cited a February post by Trump on Truth Social, writing that there was no evidence for the president’s claim that a yearlong review involving contractors, musical experts, arts institutions and other consultants had taken place to justify a full or partial closure.
The lawsuit that led to the ruling was filed in March by Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio Kennedy Center board member whose voting rights were removed last year. Beatty argued the board lacked authority to rename the center and that the planned closure was approved without sufficient deliberation.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson, Roma Daravi, said the organization will appeal the decision. In an emailed statement she said the center requires “an urgent and significant restoration” and noted that “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place” to restore what the statement called the “Trump Kennedy Center” as a national cultural landmark.
NPR sought comment from the White House and did not receive an immediate response.
Judge Cooper’s ruling does not bar the board from pursuing a future closure or renovation, but he said any such action should follow a fully informed, independent decision-making process that balances the obligation to maintain and operate a premiere arts venue with the center’s statutory duty to memorialize a fallen president.