Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name from Kennedy Center
Kennedy Center Trump name removal court order
In a significant legal rebuke, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on Friday, May 29, 2026, that President Donald Trump’s name must be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In a 94-page opinion, Judge Cooper determined that the institution’s Board of Trustees—which had been restructured by the President—exceeded its statutory authority by unilaterally renaming the venue “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The court directed the administration to remove all physical signage and digital references to the President’s name from the center within 14 days, as reported by The Hindu.
Judge Cooper’s ruling emphasized that the Kennedy Center is a living memorial established by an organic federal statute, and that only Congress possesses the legal authority to alter its official name. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote. Beyond the naming dispute, the judge also granted a preliminary injunction that blocks the administration’s plans to close the venue for a two-year, $257 million renovation project. As detailed by Xinhua, the court found that the Board’s decision to shutter the center was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained,” failing to consider the institution’s core obligations to maintain performance programming.
The reaction from the White House was immediate. Following the decision, President Trump took to his Truth Social platform to lash out at the presiding judge, asserting that he “should be ashamed of himself.” Suggesting he would abandon the project entirely, the President indicated he had instructed the Department of Commerce to facilitate a full transfer of the institution’s operations and maintenance responsibilities back to Congress. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else… I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump wrote.
The lawsuit was brought by Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a member of the Board of Trustees, who argued that the renaming was an act of vanity that desecrated a sacred national institution. While the administration’s spokesperson, Roma Daravi, stated that they are confident an appeal will uphold the Board’s decision to “recognize President Trump’s historic contributions,” legal experts note that the judge’s focus on the center’s foundational statute creates a high hurdle for any reversal.
