A federal judge on Friday ordered President Donald Trump to remove his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Judge Christopher Cooper also temporarily barred the Washington cultural institution from shutting down for two years for renovations.
“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,” Judge Cooper wrote in his order in U.S. District Court in Washington. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.
In December, the board added Trump’s name to the building, leading to a mass exodus of artists. In March, the board also approved his plan to close the center in July for extensive renovations that would take up to two years.
Cooper’s ruling stemmed from a March lawsuit filed against Trump by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. Earlier that month, Beatty called out the president for his “unlawful renaming” of the building and for his decision to rebuild without consulting the appropriate regulatory entities.
“On February 1, 2026, after weeks of bad press and mounting criticism,
President Trump abruptly announced on Truth Social that he had decided to close the Kennedy Center for approximately two years, starting July 2026,” the filing read. “The timing alone suggests that decision is meant to hide how this once great institution is failing as a direct result of President Trump’s unlawful effort to rename the Kennedy Center for himself.”
The president’s push to rebrand the Kennedy Center after himself also spurred a number of JFK’s family to comment, with Jack Schlossberg, Maria Shriver and Joe Kennedy III condemning the move.
“Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building. He can try to kill JFK,” Kennedy’s grandson Schlossberg wrote at the time. “But JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice, and restore the freedoms generations fought for.”
Shriver, the niece of Kennedy, also mocked Trump’s decision to try shutting down the Center for renovations on July 4 as being due to how many performances backed out following his name being put on the building.
“Translation: It has been brought to my attention that due to the name change (but nobody’s telling me it’s due to the name change), but it’s been brought to my attention that entertainers are canceling left and right, and I have determined that since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer,” she wrote.
