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The addition of Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center is still a violation of federal law, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on an emergency
motion seeking to block the board of the Kennedy Center — which is comprised of Trump loyalists — from adding his name in other places on the building and its grounds.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote in his decision. “The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”
In May, Cooper, an Obama appointee, ordered the center to remove Trump’s name from the building and other materials. The performing arts center complied with his order, and since then a tarp has covered the front façade.
Despite that, Cooper wrote in the ruling, “the drama at the Kennedy Center continues. Despite the Court’s order, on August 13, 2026, the Board passed a resolution ‘to recognize and honor President Trump’s current and future existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the Center’ in three different ways.”
Per the board’s resolution, on the façade below its official name, “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” there would be an additional line reading “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board also voted to designate “the physical site and grounds upon which the center sits” as the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
Cooper granted the motion filed by Rep. U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who had originally sued the Kennedy Center and Trump over the renaming, to block the proposed additions.
Beatty is “entitled to enforcement of the Court’s injunction, which reflects Congress’s decision to memorialize President Kennedy, and no one else, at the Center bearing his name,” Cooper wrote. A copy of the decision is available at this link.
