A US judge has ordered the removal of Donald Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, ruling that the venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress. District Judge Christopher Cooper directed the Trump administration to take down all signage bearing Trump’s name and remove references to a “Trump Kennedy Center” from official materials within 14 days.
In a 94-page opinion, Judge Cooper wrote: “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.” He added that the board had “overstepped its statutory bounds” by renaming the centre after Trump.
The ruling also temporarily blocked the centre from closing this summer for proposed renovations. Judge Cooper described the decision to halt operations as “ill-informed and seemingly preordained”, stating that the board had been “derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities” and based its decision on “insufficient, one-sided information”.
Reacting on Truth Social, Trump said he would work with Congress to transfer ownership of the Kennedy Center, adding: “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, I have no interest in continuing.”
The lawsuit was brought by Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a board member. She welcomed the ruling, saying: “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity.”
The controversy began in February when Trump appointed himself chair of the board, sparking a purge of members. The board voted to add Trump’s name in December, prompting cancellations by artists including the musical Hamilton. The centre, which receives federal funding, has long enjoyed bipartisan support but has become a political flashpoint under Trump.
