A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction preventing the Trump administration from shutting down the Kennedy Center for repair work and has mandated the removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the facility and its website, determining that any formal name change requires congressional authorization.
US District Judge Christopher Cooper delivered the ruling on Friday, giving the administration two weeks to remove all Trump references from the center and its digital platforms. Cooper’s 94-page decision, released on President John F. Kennedy’s birthday, determined that Congress holds sole authority over changing the institution’s name, not the center’s governing board.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.
The judge determined that labeling the facility as the “Trump Kennedy Center” went beyond simply using an alternative name. Cooper referenced signage that identified the venue as “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” and concluded that this modification changed the institution’s official identity.
“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?” Cooper wrote.
Cooper rejected the administration’s contention that no actual renaming had occurred.
“They instead submit that everything is not what it seems,” Cooper wrote.
“The rechristening is not, as Defendants suggest, like calling the ‘Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’ the ‘Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,’ which is merely a clerical rearrangement,” he added.
President Trump pushed back by justifying his plans to renovate the facility, characterizing the proposed renovations as essential for addressing significant structural and safety issues. He also attacked Cooper, alleging political prejudice and conflicts of interest.
“I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight. 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,’” President Trump wrote.
The president indicated he would pursue congressional involvement regarding the center’s future, stating he would collaborate with lawmakers “to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”
