A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s renaming of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts after himself is illegal and temporarily barred the president from shuttering the Washington, DC cultural institution for renovations.
Trump’s effort to rename the iconic Kennedy Center the Trump-Kennedy Center came after the president used his authority to purge the institution’s board and appoint new trustees. In an unprecedented move, the trustees then voted to make Trump the center’s board chair. Last December, the board voted unanimously to rename the institution—a move that violated federal law.
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, sued over the name change, which outraged many Americans and, along with Trump’s addition of his name to the US Institute of Peace, sparked legislation aimed at banning the naming or renaming of federal assets after sitting presidents.
“May the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorization? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no,” US District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling on Beatty’s suit. “Nor can any other individual be memorialized on the front portico of the building.”
BREAKING: we just won our Kennedy Center case!Both the renaming & the closure of the Kennedy Center are enjoinedKudos to our wonderful client @repbeatty.bsky.social & my colleagues @democracydefendersaction.org & Washington Litigation GroupThis is a 1-2 punch against Trump’s corruption
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— Norm Eisen (@normeisen.bsky.social) May 29, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Originally called the National Cultural Center, the Kennedy Center was renamed via an act of Congress following former President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination.
“It is hard to imagine a more intentional legislative effort to call the Center by its chosen name,” Cooper—an appointee of former President Barack Obama—wrote. “The organic statute also takes pains to ensure that the Kennedy Center’s public spaces honor President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone… The prohibition is unambiguous.”
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," the judge added.
Cooper also temporarily blocked Trump’s planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for renovations.
“In ratifying President Trump’s closure announcement, the Board was derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center,” he wrote. “More specifically, the Board based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and
neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions.”
While Trump claimed the decision to shutter the Kennedy Center was based on input from a group of “many Highly Respected experts,” who said the center was “tired, broken, and dilapidated," critics including John F. Kennedy’s descendants pointed to artists not wanting to perform there after the president’s takeover and purge, which resulted in programming including the world premier of a documentary film about his wife panned by one critic as “a scowling void of pure nothingness.”
Cooper said that the Kennedy Center could be allowed to close “after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion."
Beatty welcomed Cooper’s ruling, which she said “rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law.”
“The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump,” she added. “He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”
Trump, meanwhile, took to his Truth Social network to rail against Cooper, “a Judge appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.”
“Cooper ruled that The Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for largescale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World, is not allowed to close for these renovations, which would not be possible to properly do without such a closure,” the president wrote.
“Additionally, Judge Cooper ruled that the 36 Member Board of Trustees, which unanimously voted to add the name ‘TRUMP’ onto the former Kennedy Center, making it The Trump Kennedy Center, did not have the right to do such an addition, and the name, ‘TRUMP,’ must be removed,” Trump’s screed continued.
“I took great pride in taking over a losing Institution, and looked forward to making it into a Great and Prestigious WINNER for Washington, D.C., and indeed, the United States of America,” he continued. “Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of, much as I have done, in many cases, throughout my life.”
“Therefore, based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it,” Trump said.
“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself! I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight,” the president wrote. “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.’”
“There has never been a President of the United States who has been treated so unfairly by the Courts as I,” he added, “but, that’s OK, I will continue to do, what is considered to be, a great job for the wonderful people of our Country.”
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