Judge blocks plan to return Trump's name to the Kennedy Center

Performing Arts

Judge blocks plan to return Trump's name to the Kennedy Center September 15, 20261:49 PM ET

A tarp covers signage on the facade of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, on June 15, 2026, after a judge ordered the removal of President Donald Trump's name. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

A federal judge has ruled that the board of the Kennedy Center can't put President Trump's name back on the building, or rename the physical grounds of the arts center as the "President Donald J. Trump Plaza."

In a 22-page decision, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper referred to an earlier ruling, as well Congress' mandate regarding the living memorial to John F. Kennedy. "Simply put," he wrote, "Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted."

Cooper's ruling came as part of the ongoing federal lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board. She originally sued last December to stop the board from renaming the Washington, D.C., arts institution as "The Trump Kennedy Center."

Workers build scaffolding on The Kennedy Center on June 12, 2026.

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Most of the current Kennedy Center board members are Trump allies who were picked by the president, who now also serves as the arts institution's chair.

The decision came minutes before the board was set to meet to decide whether or not to shut down the center immediately for major renovations. Beatty's lawsuit does not address those renovation plans.

Administrators of the Kennedy Center told the board in recent days that the physical plant of the complex's main building is unsafe, and that the center's finances are "within weeks" of bankruptcy.

The entrance to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 13, still draped with the tarp that has been in place for months.

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In his decision, Cooper left open for now the possibility of whether or not the board can name its planned $100 million fundraising campaign "The Trump Kennedy Center Fund," or include any such plaque or other signage at the center eventually. In his decision, Cooper wrote: "The fund has raised nothing yet."

The board has placed Trump at the locus of its efforts, arguing both publicly and in court that the president is the only person who can fundraise at such a massive scale or successfully oversee such an extensive renovation project – and, as such, deserved public credit in the form of signage on the front of the arts complex.

Ticket sales and attendance have plummeted – and many major artists canceled their appearances there – over the past year amid concerns the center, which first opened on Sept. 8, 1971, has been politicized under Trump.

Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center, as seen from the Washington Monument, on Aug. 10.

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In a statement emailed to NPR Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Beatty wrote: "The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy – and no one else. But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial. The Court just rejected this proposal for the second time. This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop."

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