Trump can’t change Kennedy Center name, judge rules

A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump from adding his name to kennedy center.

Judge Christopher Cooper also temporarily halted the closure of the Washington, D.C., cultural venue for two years for renovations.

In December the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted to rename the institution the “Trump Kennedy Center”, 10 months after Trump removed several trustees from the board and appointed himself as trustee. The center’s facade was changed to reflect the decision, as well as other signage around the facility.

“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes absolutely clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and that it may not bear any other formal name or public memorial at the discretion of the Board,” Cooper wrote in his order in U.S. District Court in Washington.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

Cooper’s order came as a result of a lawsuit against Trump by Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees.

Beatty, like other ex-officio members of the board, was stripped of his voting rights by the board in May 2025.

In her decision Friday, Cooper granted Beatty summary judgment on his request to block Trump from changing the center’s name and also ordered that his trustee voting rights be restored.

Cooper wrote, “The organic statute of the Union makes no distinction between the powers of ordinary and ex officio trustees.” “Nothing in the statute allows the Board to explicitly discriminate between the two with respect to fundamental trustee rights. And stripping ex officio trustees of their voting rights runs counter to the common law trust principles embodied in the statute, principles that place trustees on an equal footing when it comes to participating in the administration of the trust.”

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