Judge shreds Trump name change ideas for Kennedy Center as it votes to shutter venue

15 Sep 2026, 15:15 by Chris Perez · Law & Crime

Inset: President Donald Trump speaks outside the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, April 13, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Background: Workers stand on scaffolding near the signage for the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on June 12, 2026. (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA – Sipa via AP Images).

President Donald Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center board has voted to immediately shutter the national performing arts venue due to "dire" financial circumstances, according to reports. The move comes after a federal judge once again swatted down proposed plans by the board to put Trump's name on the building, saying "the government plays word games" to try to justify the move.

Sources familiar with the decision to close the center tell The Associated Press and NBC News that the structure is in "dire" shape both financially and structurally. The board planned a meeting for Tuesday to discuss ways to stop the center from shuttering — as well as a number of Trump renovation inscriptions — after "new putative reports" came to light that directly linked the alleged closure to the Kennedy Center's financial and structural woes.

It's the third time since February that the board voted to close the center. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio — a member of the Kennedy Center board who serves by virtue of her role in Congress — has been leading efforts to block the closure and Trump name change.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee, issued an order Tuesday temporarily barring the board from putting the president's name on the center.

"Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress' blessing," Cooper wrote.

The Kennedy Center board has approved three "actions" or choices for what to do with the center's name, Cooper noted, including a "renovation inscription" — saying, "renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump" — that the government insists is "anything but a memorial," according to the Washington, D.C., jurist.

"In its view, the renovation inscription is a 'recognition,' a 'plaque,' a 'testimonial,' or an 'acknowledgment,'" Cooper explained. "But common sense dictates that the words 'renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump' establish a memorial. Defendants themselves define a 'memorial' as 'anything meant to help people remember some person or event, as a statute, holiday, etc.'"

It was reported Monday by Beatty in a court notice that the Trump-backed leaders of the Kennedy Center believe it was in danger of closing as early as Tuesday as it's on the brink of bankruptcy.

The board was slated to discuss two possible resolutions at its Tuesday meeting, Beatty said.

"The first draft resolution is yet another vote to shut down the Kennedy Center," Beatty's notice explained. "It incorrectly asserts that the Delta Consulting Group considers the main building 'unsafe for continued occupancy,' when Delta expressly disclaimed providing any such opinion. It also seeks to justify the closure by citing a recent leak in the building which caused a portion of the ceiling plaster to detach. (In the past, similar such defects appear to have been addressed without closing the Center.)"

Beatty said the second draft resolution "would again order the placement of President Trump's name on the exterior of the center" following months of pushback on the move. She urged Cooper "on an emergency basis" to prohibit the government from taking "any steps" to implement a name change.

In May, Cooper ordered the center to take Trump's name off the building after the board approved updating the facade to read, "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," following a December 2025 vote. Cooper declared that the board, of which Trump himself is a member and chairman, "overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center" after the president. Workers removed the name display in June.

"The board … bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted," Cooper said Tuesday. "Representative Beatty is thus 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 pointed out how an appeals court upheld his previous ruling, "yet the drama at the Kennedy Center continues."

He recounted how "despite the court's order," the board passed a resolution on Aug. 13 "to recognize and honor President Trump's current and future existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the Center" in three different ways. They included the renovation inscription, an "endowment inscription" with the words "endowed by The Trump Kennedy Center Fund" on the main building and a "grounds renaming" that would rename the center's campus to "President Donald J. Trump Plaza," according to Cooper.

"Linguistic gymnastics cannot extricate the Kennedy Center's Board from an operative judicial order or the governing statute it was designed to enforce," Cooper said. "Until this Court or a higher one says otherwise, the board may not implement those parts of its Aug. 13, 2026, resolution that violate the order's clear terms."

Cooper concluded that Beatty had "carried her burden" of showing that at least two of the actions contemplated by the board resolution violate the permanent injunction that's in place.

"Put simply, this court retains jurisdiction to enforce its prior order and prohibit defendants from creating new memorials at the Kennedy Center for anyone other than President Kennedy," he said.

Trump has publicly criticized Cooper on Truth Social as "highly conflicted," emphasizing that Cooper is married to one of former President Joe Biden's attorneys.

The Washington Litigation Group, which is representing Beatty in her lawsuit against the Trump administration, put out a statement Monday saying the "constant effort" to add Trump's name to the center's facade is "the definition of insanity" and the third attempt to "deface this sacred memorial and turn it into a vanity project for one man's ego."

The statement added, "Worse still, now Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way."

Matt Naham contributed to this report.