{"id":212128,"date":"2026-05-30T10:09:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-orders-removal-of-trumps-name-from-kennedy-center-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:09:46","slug":"us-judge-orders-removal-of-trumps-name-from-kennedy-center-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-orders-removal-of-trumps-name-from-kennedy-center-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US judge orders removal of Trump's name from Kennedy Center – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge rules that Washington DC performing arts venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress
A judge on Friday ordered the removal of Donald Trump\u2019s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ruling that the prestigious Washington DC<\/a> venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.
US district judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the Trump administration<\/a> to take down all physical signage bearing Trump\u2019s name and to eliminate any references to a \u201cTrump Kennedy Center\u201d from official materials within 14 days.
\u201cThe Kennedy Center\u2019s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board\u2019s unilateral say-so,\u201d Cooper wrote in a 94-page opinion. \u201cCongress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.\u201d
The judge added: \u201cThe Court has concluded that the Board overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump.\u201d
Not long after the ruling, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would work with Congress on transferring ownership of the Kennedy Center.
\u201cI have instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution, giving them the responsibility for its Operation, Maintenance, and Management,\u201d he wrote.
Cooper also temporarily blocked the center from closing this summer for proposed renovations, two months after Trump announced its two-year closure<\/a>.
He said that \u201cin ratifying President Trump\u2019s closure announcement, the Board was derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center\u201d.
\u201cMore specifically, the Board based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions,\u201d Cooper went on.
He called the decision to halt operations during the renovation \u201cill-informed and seemingly preordained\u201d.
Touting his vision for the proposed renovations in his post, Trump added: \u201cUnless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into \u2018NEVER NEVER LAND.\u2019\u201d
Cooper judged ruled in a lawsuit brought by Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democratic US representative, a member of the Kennedy Center\u2019s board by virtue of her position in Congress.
\u201cToday\u2019s ruling rightly affirms that this administration\u2019s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,\u201d Beatty said in a statement welcoming the decision. \u201cThe Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump<\/a>. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity.\u201d
Shortly after taking office last year, Trump sparked controversy when he appointed himself chair<\/a> of the Kennedy Center\u2019s board of trustees in February, calling it a \u201ctake-over\u201d<\/a>. He purged the board and replaced them with his own appointees.
The board of the Kennedy Center then voted in favor<\/a> of the proposal to add Trump\u2019s name in December, culminating an aggressive effort of his administration to remake Washington\u2019s arts and culture institutions to his liking.
John F Kennedy\u2019s grandnephew Joe Kennedy III, a former congressman for Massachusetts, said at the time that he doubted the center\u2019s name could legally be changed.
\u201cThe Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says,\u201d Kennedy III wrote on X<\/a>.<\/a><\/strong>
The move also led to a wave of artists and performing groups canceling bookings in protest, including a run of the Tony award-winning musical Hamilton. The executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Jean Davidson, left<\/a> to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. And in March, Richard Grenell, a Trump appointee, who played a key role in the push to overhaul the institution and target \u201cwoke\u201d culture, announced he was stepping down<\/a> as president.
The center, which receives federal funding, is one of America\u2019s leading arts venues with a huge cultural profile in America\u2019s capital and has long enjoyed bipartisan support. But under Trump it has become an extension of the White House\u2019s cultural agenda.
Trump persuaded Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, to hold the World Cup draw there in December. Trump hosted<\/a> the Kennedy Center Honors there himself, addressed House Republicans and also premiered the documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump, there in January.
Trump\u2019s other grand plans for the nation\u2019s capital include a vast \u201cVictory arch\u201d near the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington national cemetery, and a 100,000 sq ft ballroom<\/a> at the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House.
Those efforts also face court challenges. A federal appeals court has allowed the Trump administration to move ahead<\/a> with construction of the ballroom as it considers the case, though some of its federal funding is now in jeopardy<\/a> following a Senate Republican rebellion.
Last year House Republicans also proposed changing the name of the Kennedy Center\u2019s Opera House to the \u201cFirst Lady Melania Trump Opera House\u201d. It has also ordered a review of the Smithsonian Institution.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge rules that Washington DC performing arts venue cannot be renamed without an act of CongressA judge on Friday ordered the removal of Donald Trump\u2019s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ruling that the prestigious Washington DC venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.US district judge Christopher Cooper in Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}