Donald Trump renamed a national memorial to a murdered president after himself. On May 29, 2026, a federal judge gave the administration 14 days to take the name back down.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump's handpicked board at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts lacked the legal authority to rename the venue. The board had rebranded it the "Trump Kennedy Center." The building's facade now reads: "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts." The judge said that is a renaming, full stop, and only Congress can authorize it.
"The Kennedy Center's 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's unilateral say-so," Cooper wrote in his 94-page decision, which he issued on Kennedy's birthday. "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."
How It Got Here
Trump named himself board chairman of the Kennedy Center in the early weeks of his second term. By December 2025, he issued a memo directing the institution to align with his vision. The board, stocked with his appointees, voted to add his name to the building alongside Kennedy's. In March 2026, the board voted to close the facility for two years starting after July 4 for renovations.
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a Democrat who holds an ex-officio trustee seat under the Kennedy Center's founding statute, sued to block both moves. She argued the board's actions violated federal law and stripped her of her voting rights as a trustee.
Judge Cooper agreed on all counts. He ordered Trump's name removed from the building and the center's website within 14 days, restored Beatty's trustee rights, and blocked the planned two-year closure, finding the board had acted on an "ill-informed and seemingly preordained decision" that failed to weigh the full range of its statutory obligations.
"The 'Trump Kennedy Center' label adds an entirely new name to the Center's formal title and relegates President Kennedy's name to second place. If that is not a renaming, what is?" — U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper
Trump's Response: Quit and Blame the Building
After the ruling, Trump posted on Truth Social that he "cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight," and announced he would instruct the Commerce Department to transfer the Kennedy Center back to Congress entirely.
"Unless 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 'NEVER NEVER LAND,'" Trump wrote.
Trump named himself chairman of the Kennedy Center over a year ago. A federal judge ordered his name stripped from the building, and Trump announced he was done. The Kennedy Center has operated continuously since 1971.
The ruling arrives in a broader pattern. Trump's name and image have been added to federal buildings, battleships, passports, and a government drug website in his second term. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this week his department is preparing to print $250 bills with Trump's face if Congress passes enabling legislation. The Kennedy Center was one line in that campaign. A federal judge ruled it illegal the same day JFK would have turned 109.
Sources
- NBC News: Judge temporarily halts Kennedy Center closure and orders Trump's name removed (May 29, 2026)
- CBS News: Judge blocks closure of Kennedy Center, orders removal of Trump's name (May 29, 2026)
- NPR: Trump's name must be removed from Kennedy Center, judge orders (May 29, 2026)
- Axios: Trump's name must come off the Kennedy Center, judge orders (May 29, 2026)
- Rep. Joyce Beatty press release: Court Reverses Unlawful Renaming and Halts Shutdown of Kennedy Center
- Court Listener: Full 94-page ruling by Judge Christopher Cooper
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