President Donald Trump’s name cannot be affixed to the Kennedy Center without congressional approval, a federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday — the second time he has stopped the institution’s Board of Trustees from doing so.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper wrote in a court order that the board, made up of Trump allies who replaced previous members the president fired last year, cannot circumvent prior rulings that prevented them from placing the president’s name on the performing arts center.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote Tuesday.
The board has argued that the Kennedy Center is on the brink of “financial collapse” and cannot proceed with renovations unless it “legally and appropriately” recognizes Trump. Members have repeatedly asserted that Trump will not help the center unless his name appears somewhere on the grounds.
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They have sought various ways to recognize Trump after Cooper, an Obama appointee, shut down a previous effort to rename the center after the president. Cooper wrote in a 94-page ruling this spring that federal law “makes crystal clear” that the center, named in President John F. Kennedy’s honor months after he was assassinated, “cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so.”
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name,” Cooper wrote in May, “and only Congress can change it.”
Legal challenges to stop Trump’s name from being placed on the storied institution have been led by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board.
“The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else. But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial,” Beatty said in a statement following Cooper’s ruling Tuesday. “This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”
Trump has maintained that the Kennedy Center is in a “virtual state of collapse.” He recently highlighted an incident during which a chunk of ceiling fell to the ground in a main hallway, as well as damage that was caused when a severe bout of lightning storms hit Washington Sept. 4-5.
He shared a video on Truth Social on Tuesday emphasizing the building’s conditions and wrote in a separate post that the Board of Trustees believes he is the only person who can “save” the venue.
“A very hostile and conflicted Judge (What else is new?) seems like he won’t let that happen, in which case, unfortunately, the Building is destined to doom,” Trump wrote.
Several artists canceled appearances at the Kennedy Center following the first attempt to rename it after Trump. Then-Kennedy Executive Director Richard Grenell frequently criticized performers, accusing them of being partisan actors.
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