A court ruling in the spring rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to place his name on the Kennedy Center in Washington. At the time, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump’s name must be removed from the Center because only Congress, by statute, can change the venue’s name.
The Trump-appointed board also added the phrase “Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump” to the building’s name, along with “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
Per the Daily Beast, this was followed by another court battle last week, when Rep. Joyce Beatty, a member of Congress on the board, filed an emergency motion, accusing her colleagues of a “breathtaking assault on the rule of law.” Trump and his team have gone so far as to threaten to bulldoze the building if the court rulings don’t go their way.
Judge Cooper presided over the subsequent hearing last week, although he did not issue a ruling. But that didn’t stop Trump from lashing out this weekend at the judge in a Truth Social post.
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“Kennedy Center is an old and decrepit building that is badly in need of a major construction and public relations fix before it can attain greatness and prestige, perhaps far greater than ever before,” Trump said in the post. “It has been losing a fortune for many years, and will continue to do so if the highly conflicted judge on the case doesn’t allow us to do what has to be done!”
Trump knocks ‘highly conflicted’ judge in Kennedy Center case https://t.co/kgcNAZTATR
— The Hill (@thehill) August 31, 2026
It’s not clear why Trump feels the judge is “highly conflicted,” aside from the fact that President Barack Obama appointed Cooper.
The Washington Post had reported Monday that, contrary to the president’s assertions, the Kennedy Center’s financial fortunes had deteriorated after Trump began making changes, including placing his own name on the building.
“Ticket sales had already dropped in the 10 months following Trump’s takeover, but both ticket sales and donations plunged after the Trump-led board of trustees voted in December to rename the center after him and put his name on the front of the building, according to the records,” the Post reported.
After Trump changed the name, the newspaper said, “it was just an absolute fiscal cliff. Donors disappeared, ticket sales disappeared, artists disappeared — like it was doomsday.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
