Donald Trump blocked from Kennedy Centre overhaul as judge orders name removed in Washington

A federal judge issued a ruling this week temporarily blocking key parts of President Donald Trump’s effort to transform the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, throwing the institution’s future into a state of uncertainty.

Mr Trump has made the planned overhaul of the cultural centre a priority for his second term. He installed himself as the Kennedy Centre’s board chair and brought in loyalists as trustees who voted last year to add his name to the building. Programming priorities shifted, acts have withdrawn or dropped out, ticket sales plummeted and more than 100 employees resigned or were laid off.

In March, the board agreed to Mr Trump’s plan to close the centre for a two-year renovation. But US District Judge Christopher Cooper on Friday granted in part a request from Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), temporarily blocking steps toward the closure. He also ordered Kennedy Centre officials to remove Mr Trump’s name from the centre’s building and branding.

Here’s what to know about the ruling and what comes next.

Mr Trump’s name was ordered scrubbed from building – but an appeal may be coming

Judge Cooper has ordered the removal of Mr Trump’s name from the building’s white exterior wall, a little more than five months after it was installed when the board, stacked by Mr Trump with those loyal to him, voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts.”

They have two weeks to remove it and scrap references to it from the website.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Centre its name,” Judge Cooper wrote in his opinion, “and only Congress can change it.”

The name change angered many in the arts community, and members of the Kennedy family blasted the decision. Some opponents argued the action desecrated President John F. Kennedy’s legacy. Congress renamed the performing arts centre in 1964, two months after Kennedy was assassinated, to serve as the “sole national memorial” to the late president.

A spokesperson for the performing arts centre indicated it will appeal the judge’s decision.

“We are confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognise President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural centre,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Centre’s vice president of public relations, said in a statement.

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Mr Trump blasted the ruling and the repercussions for the planned renovation. “Millions of Dollars of material, marble, furniture, steel, air conditioning, heating, and so much else was ordered, or soon to be ordered” for the halted renovations, he wrote.

“The Trump Kennedy Centre was going to be a special one,” the president wrote.

“It would have been a New Standard of Excellence, one of my many Gifts to Washington, DC”

The Kennedy Centre could still eventually close

Judge Cooper ordered a halt to the centre’s plans to shutter the building for now, but said the centre could move ahead with repairs. His order doesn’t stop the board from closing the centre “should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing” its responsibilities.

The future of programming at the Kennedy Centre remains in the air following the ruling. Dozens of staff were laid off in anticipation of the closure, and many of the theatrical runs that have been cancelled take years to plan and cannot be easily replaced.

The rulings do not resolve the day-to-day operational uncertainty that has paralysed the performing arts venue for months, according to a Kennedy Centre staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

Ticket sales and subscriptions have fallen since Mr Trump installed himself as board chair in February 2025. Several shows were cancelled or withdrawn from the calendar - including “Hamilton” and performances by the Washington National Opera, which ended its 55-year residence.

The staff member said it was unlikely the centre would fare better with booking artists, reassuring donors, retaining staff or building a season while Mr Trump remains chairman and retains effective control over board appointments. “Court orders alone will not stabilise the institution,” the staff member said.

Mr Trump’s own actions - such as whether he appeals or walks away - and any moves from Congress may have more of an effect, the staff member said. “Those decisions, more than the ruling itself, will determine whether the Kennedy Centre finds a path toward stability or continues drifting deeper into uncertainty,” the staff member said.

Mr Trump signals he may no longer want to be involved

In a pair of lengthy social media posts on Friday and Saturday, Mr Trump said that for safety reasons, the venue should close for much-needed renovations, and suggested he no longer wants to be involved if the courts continue to limit him.

The president, in his initial post, claimed the closure was for “large-scale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind.”

“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,” he wrote.

Mr Trump lashes out at the judge in a personal attack

In his Saturday post, Mr Trump railed against Judge Cooper, the judge who blocked the temporary closure of the building and ordered the removal of Mr Trump’s name from the centre. Mr Trump called Judge Cooper a “Radical Left Democrat” and claimed he had a conflict of interest since his wife, Amy Jeffress, is a lawyer who represents former president Joe Biden.

Ms Jeffress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Trump says he’s working on a transfer to Congress

Mr Trump indicated that he’s working to hand the Kennedy Centre off to Congress.

“I 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,” Mr Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.

Congress established the centre in a law that granted the Kennedy Centre’s board of trustees authority over managing it. As the judge said, only Congress has the power to change other aspects of that law, like the centre’s name.

Mr Trump’s appointees are not the only trustees with authority over the centre

In December, Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Centre’s board, sued her fellow trustees days after they voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts.”

Beatty said she was muted during the virtual board meeting when she tried to voice opposition to the name change, a claim the centre disputed. She later amended the lawsuit to seek a broader halt to the closure, and the court granted her request for key documents related to the renovation plan, including building assessments and budget materials.

The judge’s opinion recognised Beatty’s duty to protect the centre’s trust as an ex officio trustee. And it barred the centre from enforcing an attempt to ensure that this type of trustee, who serves in their office, could not vote.

Practically speaking, allowing ex officio members to vote “is unlikely to change the Board’s current balance of power,” Judge Cooper wrote. He added there was some dispute about whether those members had voted in the past, but that was beside the point for this case.