Judge orders Trump name removed from Kennedy Center
Court says venue cannot be renamed without Congress approval, rebranding collides with ticket sales and pending renovations
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bbc.com
Getty Images A close up of signage that says The Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on 16 May 2026 in Washington DC.
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Getty Images The Kennedy Center is seen lit up in the dark across the Potomac River in Washington DC
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Trump says he has ‘no interest’ in Kennedy Center after judge orders his name removed from memorial – live
theguardian.com
A US federal judge has ordered the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington to remove President Donald Trump’s name from its title and signage within 14 days. According to the BBC, the ruling also blocks plans to close the venue temporarily during proposed renovations. The judge said the center cannot be renamed without congressional approval.
The dispute is a reminder that cultural institutions are unusually exposed to the politics of naming rights, but without the private-market contract that normally defines what can be bought and for how long. The Kennedy Center was created by statute as a memorial to President John F Kennedy, and District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in a 94-page opinion that the law “makes clear” the institution is to bear Kennedy’s name and no other formal name adopted unilaterally by its board. The board had voted in December to rename it, and new lettering with Trump’s full name was affixed to the front portico the next day, the BBC reports.
That speed matters because it clarifies what the plaintiffs were challenging: not an incremental branding tweak but a fait accompli. The lawsuit was brought by board member Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democratic congresswoman, and other former trustees who said they were stripped of their right to vote on board matters after Trump replaced several trustees and appointed himself as a trustee before being voted in as chairman, according to the BBC. The plaintiffs later expanded the case to include the planned closure for repairs.
The ruling also lands in the middle of a practical problem: the Kennedy Center says it needs “urgent and significant restoration,” and its spokesperson said $257 million had been secured by Trump and approved by Congress for that work, according to the BBC. But the judge blocked a proposed two-year shutdown tied to renovations that Trump had announced would begin on 4 July 2026, framed as part of the United States’ 250th anniversary. When programming venues close, the losses are not only ticket revenue but the informal network effects of artists, donors and touring schedules that shift elsewhere and do not automatically return.
The Kennedy Center has said it will appeal. Trump, in a statement cited by The Guardian, said he had “no interest” in continuing his involvement unless he is free to improve the institution “physically, financially, and artistically,” and said he had instructed the Department of Commerce to work with Congress to transfer the center back to congressional control.
Judge Cooper ordered the name to revert to the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, the name it has carried since opening in 1971. The building’s new lettering, installed the day after the board vote, now has a court-ordered deadline attached to it.