Topline
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled the Kennedy Center cannot inscribe President Donald Trump‘s name on the venue’s marble facade, saying the plan violates both federal law that designates naming ability to Congress and a prior court order that directed the institution to remove Trumps name from its branding.
A judge ruled the Kennedy Center “cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else” without congressional approval. (Photo by Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Washington Post via Getty Images
Key Facts
District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled the Kennedy Centers effort to add an inscription on the marble facade thanking Trump for his fundraising efforts “bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”
Cooper cited a ruling he made in May, which blocked the institution‘s effort to rename itself the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” noting the venue’s founding law designates the ability to name the center to Congress and forbids “additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials.”
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congresss blessing,” Cooper said.
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Cooper acknowledged arts institutions often honor donors by renaming facilities, but he said Congress “had other ideas for the Kennedy Center” and “surely did not intend for the Board to auction off naming rights to constituent parts of the campus.”
Cooper also blocked the Kennedy Center from naming the grounds it sits on “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” saying the move violates his prior order barring any signage on the Kennedy Centers “building or grounds” that “designates, suggests, or implies the institution is named for any person other than President John F. Kennedy.”
The ruling is a victory for plaintiff Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who sued in December to block the Kennedy Center from renaming itself after Trump and filed a motion in August to block the plan to inscribe Trumps name.
crucial quote
“Linguistic gymnastics cannot extricate the Kennedy Center‘s Board from an operative judicial order or the governing statute it was designed to enforce. Until this Court or a higher one says otherwise, the Board may not implement those parts of its August 13, 2026 resolution that violate the order’s clear terms,” Cooper ruled.
what to watch for
The Kennedy Centers board is set to meet Tuesday afternoon. Cooper made his order just minutes before the board was scheduled to convene at 12:30 p.m. EDT. In an internal email which Kennedy Center lawyers submitted to the court, vice president for board relations Joe LaFauci said the meeting would focus exclusively on the “necessary closure of the Center” because of unspecified “recently exacerbated structural emergencies.”
Judge Questions Kennedy Center‘s Alleged ’Financial Peril
In his ruling, Cooper questioned the Kennedy Center‘s claim, which it has made repeatedly in court filings, that the venue will face imminent financial ruin if Trump’s name is not affixed to the venue because donors will otherwise not contribute. Cooper cited his own assertion from a previous ruling that the Kennedy Center has offered “no proof that current or future donations hinge on President Trump‘s name being on the building.” He pointed to evidence Beatty raised in court that showed the addition of Trump’s name to the center “coincided with declines in revenue and contributions, as artists cancelled performances, the Washington National Opera ended its 50-year residency, and ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast dropped precipitously.” Cooper, though, noted the question of the Kennedy Centers financial survival with or without Trumps name is “beside the point” of his order, which was only tasked with ruling on whether the inscription and renaming of the Kennedy Center grounds violates his prior order.
Trump Says Kennedy Center Ceiling Collapse Could Have ‘Killed’ People
Just before Cooper made his order Tuesday, Trump said in a post on Truth Social the Kennedy Center is in a “virtual state of collapse.” Trump said a “large piece of concrete and steel just dropped down, in a thud, from the ceiling of a heavily trafficked main hallway,” in an apparent reference to security footage Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted on Monday showing a piece of the ceiling falling onto the lobby floor. Trump claimed “innocent people would have been killed” if the building were open and that a security guard who had passed through the area was “60 seconds away from certain death.” Trump said he is the “only one” who can “save” the Kennedy Center “because I have the ability to raise the money, and the ability to construct — that few others have,” also criticizing Cooper for being “very hostile and conflicted.”
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key background
Cooper ruled in May the Kennedy Center‘s board of trustees alone could not change the venue’s name to the Trump-Kennedy Center, noting Congress has the ability to name the institution. “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,” Cooper wrote in his ruling. Beatty, in her motion, argued the proposed inscription of Trump‘s name would violate that order. In June, the Kennedy Center removed Trump’s name from the facade, but scaffolding and tarps have since blocked the sign from public view.
further reading
Lutnick Shares Video Of Collapsing Kennedy Center Ceiling—Amid Push To Shut Building And Add Trumps Name (Forbes)