Photo Credit: Clay Elliot
Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board has found a new way to potentially circumvent a federal judge’s order to remove his name from the building.
On Thursday, the Trump-appointed board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to inscribe “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” beneath the building’s signage, sources told The New York Times. The move follows a federal judge’s ruling that the addition of Trump’s name to the building’s facade and website was done illegally and must be removed.
It’s a proposal directing center officials to recognize the current president through “all legal means” and even suggests naming the grounds on which the building sits to the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” This, the board says, credits Trump with bringing the institution back “from the brink of disaster.”
In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board lacked authority to rename the institution. Months after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, Congress designated the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a living memorial. Federal law typically prevents additional memorials overlapping the space.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” wrote Judge Cooper.
In February 2025, Trump took over the Kennedy Center as a personal project, removing trustees and installing his allies, who then voted him chairman. In December, the board voted to rename the institution the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” or the “Trump Kennedy Center” for short.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a former trustee whom the board had stripped of her voting rights, sued, alleging (among other things) that adding Trump’s name to the institution violated federal law. Judge Cooper ordered Trump’s name removed, restored voting rights to ex officio trustees like Rep. Beatty, and temporarily blocked the board’s plan to close the center for two years for renovations.
Despite workers removing Trump’s name from the building overnight, the scaffolding and tarps remained, which prevented the public from viewing the restored signage. On Thursday, the board voted again to close the main building for renovations, per a 163-page plan for an approximately $250 million project that includes structural repairs, new marble floors, an acoustic overhaul, and $7 million in restroom renovations.
To comply with the judge’s ruling that the Kennedy Center must remain open for limited programming and memorial exhibits. The new proposal would leave the newer Reach complex open during the renovation. The board must submit the proposal to Judge Cooper next week.
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