In the Trump Administration’s second court setback of the day, a judge ruled Friday that the president’s name must come off the Kennedy Center.
Per the Daily Mail, US District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, ruled that the process by which Trump’s hand-picked board changed the name of the performing arts center was not lawful. In addition, the two-year closure of the Center was blocked by the order.
The judge authored a 94-page opinion in support of the order.
A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center and ordered it to be removed within two weeks.
The judge also temporarily blocked Trump from taking further steps to close the institution. https://t.co/8TbM1wv6LC pic.twitter.com/wW988eTg6p
— Variety (@Variety) May 29, 2026
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‘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,” the judge wrote in his ruling. The judge added that the original Kennedy Center name came from an act of Congress, and it would require another act of Congress to change it.
The proceeding arose from a lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who served on the center’s board.
Earlier in the day, a different judge had temporarily stopped the president from establishing his “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Roma Daravi, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy Center, told the Times that the ruling would be appealed.
“We are confident that on appeal the court will uphold the board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center,” Daravi said.
After he returned to the White House, Trump sought changes at the Kennedy Center, in which his hand-picked board ultimately voted to add the president’s name to the Center. Various acts canceled their performances at the venue, which ultimately announced that it would close for two years of renovations.
The opinion began with a remembrance of the Kennedys.
“In November 1962, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy presided over “An American Pageant of the Arts,” a televised fundraiser for what was then known as the National Cultural Center. The event boasted an impressive slate of performers, including poet Robert Frost, singer Harry Belafonte, and a seven-year-old cellist by the name of Yo-Yo Ma, among other famed (or soon-to-be-famous) artists.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
