{"id":830969,"date":"2026-05-29T22:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/830969\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T22:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:18:17","slug":"trumps-name-to-be-removed-from-kennedy-center-judge-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/830969\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s name to be removed from Kennedy Center, judge orders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts once again hangs in the balance after a ruling handed down Friday by a federal judge ordered the removal of President Trump\u2019s name from the exterior of the building within two weeks and a halt to the Trump administration\u2019s planned two-year closure of the venue.<\/p>\n

The 94-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper came in response to a lawsuit filed in December by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center\u2019s board. The lawsuit was later amended to include a request for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction challenging the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cunlawful efforts to rename, shutter and gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,\u201d according to court documents. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s ruling rightly affirms that this administration\u2019s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,\u201d Beatty said in a statement. \u201cThe Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center\u2019s vice president of public relations, said the organization plans to carefully review the decision to halt the upcoming closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board\u2019s will to recognize President Trump\u2019s historic contributions to our nation\u2019s cultural center,\u201d Daravi said regarding the order to remove Trump\u2019s name. \u201cThe reality remains \u2014 the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration \u2014 a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davri added that Trump had already secured $257 million from Congress for the renovation as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy,\u201d Davri said.<\/p>\n

Trump first announced the center\u2019s proposed July 4 closure<\/a> in a February social media post calling the storied venue \u201cdilapidated\u201d and promising a \u201cmajor renovation.\u201d The move ricocheted across an arts world already reeling from a year\u2019s worth of drastic changes implemented at the center after Trump fired the board and had himself appointed chairman<\/a>, in one of the first acts of his second term. <\/p>\n

Ten months later, after many artist cancellations and leadership defections, Trump\u2019s handpicked board voted to add Trump\u2019s name to the building<\/a>, just above Kennedy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

In his Friday ruling Cooper addressed the renaming issue in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kennedy Center\u2019s 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\u2019s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,\u201d Cooper wrote.<\/p>\n

He was more circumspect about the pending closure, leaving room for a future closure should it be warranted, noting that \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Cooper\u2019s ruling presents a win for defenders of the Kennedy Center as it was prior to Trump\u2019s interventions, it also introduces a host of new problems since the center has canceled almost all of its programming after July 4. The National Symphony Orchestra has also been hard at work securing alternate venues at which to perform during the proposed closure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts once again hangs in the balance…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":830970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[340963,9102,1582,276,4415,327,30900,281,6616,340962,2961,3228,224,5337,3250,5204,18746,5005,277,43994],"class_list":["post-830969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-beatty","tag-building","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-closure","tag-congress","tag-cooper","tag-court","tag-judge","tag-kennedy-center-board","tag-la","tag-law","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-march","tag-name","tag-plaintiff","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-trump","tag-vice-president"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116660188515679847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}