Althea Legaspi
Contact Althea Legaspi on X View all posts by Althea Legaspi May 29, 2026
Workers begin adjusting the name of the “John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on Dec, 19, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Heather Diehl/Getty Images A federal judge has ruled that the Kennedy Center board violated the law when it added President Donald Trump’s name to the performing arts venue and blocked the institution from temporarily closing its doors to renovate.
The law establishing the center “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,” U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper wrote in his opinion, adding, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
In Cooper’s opinion, he ruled that officials are required to remove any of the signage at the Kennedy Center that bears Trump’s name within two weeks. Additionally, the website must be updated to remove references to the “Trump Kennedy Center” name and also any references to “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Reps for the White House and the Kennedy Center did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
Judge Cooper permanently blocked the center 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.”
While the judge blocked the center from temporarily closing its doors for renovations, he did say plans to renovate could move forward after the Board considers its “full range of statutory obligations.”
