US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on May 29 that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts cannot be renamed to include President Donald Trump's name without an act of Congress. He ordered all signage and references to Trump removed from the Center within 14 days, saying the board acted beyond its authority [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
Judge Cooper noted in a detailed 94-page ruling 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” [2].
The ruling also blocks the Kennedy Center board from closing the venue for the previously planned two-year renovation beginning this July. The closure plan was announced by Trump in February 2025 but now cannot proceed while the court case plays out [1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 6, 7, 8].
The dispute follows controversial moves by Trump to reshape the Center’s board after removing several Democratic trustees and appointing allies. In December 2025, the board voted to rename the venue the "Trump Kennedy Center," prompting backlash from Democratic trustees including Representative Joyce Beatty, who filed the lawsuit challenging the renaming and closure plans [9, 10, 8].
Following the ruling, Trump vowed to transfer control of the Kennedy Center to Congress, tweeting his opposition to the court order. He also criticized Judge Cooper on social media, accusing him and "the Radical Left" of wanting the Center to "DIE" rather than seeing it improved under his leadership [2, 3, 4, 10, 6, 11]. Trump said the judge “stopped a magnificent structural and aesthetic rebuilding of the Kennedy Center” [11].
Some performers and artists reportedly canceled appearances at the Center after its renaming, reflecting the ongoing controversy surrounding the venue’s leadership and identity [4, 8].
The Kennedy Center, located in Washington, D.C., was established by Congress and named in honor of President John F. Kennedy in 1964. It serves as a national cultural institution [4, 10, 6, 8].
The court order sets a 14-day deadline for removal of Trump's name from the Kennedy Center, marking the next immediate action in the case [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
