The Kennedy Center will not be named after Donald Trump despite the president’s effort to rename the iconic center. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper spoiled Trump’s plan with a ruling on Friday. Cooper explicitly defined the law in Friday’s ruling, saying “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,” Cooper wrote in the ruling, per CNN.
What’s next after judge blocks Trump from renaming the Kennedy Center?
Cooper has given Trump two weeks to remove all signs of his name from the Kennedy Center. The judge also said all references to the “Trump Kennedy Center” or the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” must be removed from the center’s website.
According to the ruling, the center is blocked from “displaying, installing, or maintaining any physical or digital signage on the Kennedy Center building or grounds that designates, suggests, or implies that the institution is named for any person other than President John F. Kennedy.”
The judge also blocked the Trump administration from closing the center for two years for renovations, according to Politico. However, Cooper said the center can still proceed with its renovation plans.
The ruling stems from lawsuits challenging both the proposed closure and the renaming effort, according to the Associated Press. One lawsuit was brought by a coalition of cultural and historic preservation groups, while another was filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. Cooper ruled in favor of Beatty’s challenge while rejecting the separate preservation groups’ lawsuit, per the Associated Press.
In his decision, Cooper wrote that the board’s March vote to close the Kennedy Center was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” and found that trustees failed to properly consider their legal obligations before moving forward, according to the Associated Press.
What is the Trump administration saying about the president’s plan to rename the Kennedy Center?
Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said the president may still get his wish after an appeal.
“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,” Daravi told Politico.
Daravi also said the center would continue pursuing renovation plans, pointing to the $257 million project backed by Trump and approved by Congress, according to the Associated Press.
The Trump administration previously argued that the president deserves to be recognized for contributing to the remodeling of the center. Officials also said it was not illegal to rename the center because the rebrand would only reflect an informal nickname. Cooper, however, reviewed official statements from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and concluded that the rebrand “reflects far more than an innocuous nicknaming.”
Hours after the ruling, Trump lashed out at the judge on Truth Social.
“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump wrote, according to the Associated Press.
The president also said he has instructed his administration to “make all necessary arrangements” to transfer control of the Kennedy Center back to Congress, per the Associated Press.
How did Trump become involved with the Kennedy Center?
Trump has taken an unusually active role in the Kennedy Center since returning to the White House. He installed a handpicked board that later named him chairman, and his name was added to a building façade at the center before Friday’s ruling, according to the Associated Press.
The administration has argued that major renovations are necessary to restore the institution. Critics, however, questioned the scope of the proposed project and worried the closure could lead to significant alterations to a building that serves as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. During court proceedings, attorneys representing Beatty and preservation groups pointed to Trump’s past comments about wanting to “fully expose” the building’s steel skeleton, according to the Associated Press.
The Kennedy Center has continued hosting performances despite the controversy, although at a slower pace than in previous years, the Associated Press reported. Trump attended a performance of Chicago in March, while other productions, including Moulin Rouge, remain scheduled. Comedian Bill Maher is also expected to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June 28.
For now, however, Cooper’s ruling prevents both the renaming effort and the planned closure, delivering a significant setback to Trump’s efforts to reshape one of the nation’s most prominent cultural institutions.