WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Kennedy Center from restoring President Donald Trump’s name to the performing arts venue or placing it elsewhere on the building or grounds. Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Trump-aligned board’s plan would violate his earlier decision that only Congress may approve changes to the Kennedy Center’s name.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”
The board voted in August to inscribe the facade with the words “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” It also approved renaming the plaza in front of the center in Trump’s honor. If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, the board planned another inscription reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
Cooper had ruled in May that Congress alone could authorize changes to the center’s name. At an emergency hearing in August, the administration argued that it was no longer trying to rename the building and characterized the proposed wording as recognition of Trump’s effort to secure money for needed renovations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose wife serves on the Kennedy Center board, compared the proposed recognition to the way hospitals and colleges acknowledge major donors. A lawyer for U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio board member, countered that the changes amounted to “deja vu” and violated Cooper’s prior ruling.