Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Renaming of Kennedy Center and Closing It for Renovations

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled on Friday that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts cannot be renamed the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee, said in his order that renaming the center requires a change in federal law and that the facility’s board, which President Donald Trump chairs, does not have the authority to shut it down for two years for renovations.

Cooper wrote that the legislation authorizing the construction of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts required the building to honor “President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone.”

“The ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ label adds an entirely new name to the Center’s formal title and relegates President Kennedy’s name to second place,” the judge argued.

He ordered that Trump’s name be removed from “the institution’s title, as represented on the façade of the Center, any other physical or digital signage, and official materials.”

Federal judge orders Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center https://t.co/Y3wLNojRPL pic.twitter.com/gF5yUR102w

— New York Post (@nypost) May 29, 2026

Cooper also countermanded the board’s decision to shut the facility for renovations, concluding it was based on “an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information” that “neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions.”

“The deficiencies in the Board’s decision-making thus ‘fall below even a forgiving standard of prudence,’” Cooper asserted.

Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio — who brought the case and serves as an ex officio member of the center’s board — argued the two-year closure will cause numerous harms.

“However, the preliminary injunction will not prevent the Center from moving forward with the capital repair work it has planned, which the record demonstrates is sorely needed. Nor will it categorically prohibit the Board from closing the Center should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion,” Cooper wrote.

Former California First Lady Maria Shriver posted on social media in response to the ruling “an appropriate birthday present on my uncle’s birthday today.” Her uncle, John F. Kennedy, the nation’s 35th president, was born on May 29, 1917, which was 109 years ago.

An appropriate birthday present on my uncle’s birthday today. A federal judge ruled that President Trump and the Kennedy Center Board acted unlawfully in renaming the Kennedy Center. The judge held that only Congress can change the Center’s name and blocked the planned two-year… https://t.co/1FpFsj7qhd

— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) May 29, 2026

Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said regarding Friday’s ruling that they 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,” Politico reported.

Daravi added that the center remains “committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”

The board, appointed by the president, voted unanimously in December to rename the venue “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” and had corresponding signage installed.

Trump responded to the decision at the time, telling reporters, “I was surprised by it, and I was honored by it. We’re saving the building… That building was in such bad shape — both physically, financially, and in every other way… The Kennedy Center is really back strongly.”

.@POTUS: “I was surprised by it, and I was honored by it. We’re saving the building… That building was in such bad shape — both physically, financially, and in every other way… The Kennedy Center is really back strongly.” https://t.co/MH9ZFbsFv3 pic.twitter.com/uYQYTNkUiL

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 18, 2025

Earlier that month, Trump hosted the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony for 2025 awardees, including Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait, Michael Crawford, and the members of the rock band KISS.

The event raised a record $23 million for the organization, which nearly doubled last year’s total of $12.7 million.

Trump responded to Cooper’s ruling, posting Friday evening on Truth Social, “Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of, much as I have done, in many cases, throughout my life.”

The president said the judge “was given a presentation by leading Building and Construction Experts as to how structurally dangerous the Building is, with rotting beams, parking areas that are subject to collapse, and various other Life and Safety problems, in addition to the fact that it also needs a MAJOR renovation, from an aesthetic standpoint, but he was not ‘swayed,’ and said he wants the Building to, incredibly, remain open and, therefore, dangerous.”

pic.twitter.com/dJIxygy3Bp

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 29, 2026

He added, “I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight. Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into “NEVER NEVER LAND.”

Trump said he will be recommending to the board transferring the responsibility for overseeing the center to Congress.

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