A federal judge on Friday ordered President Trump's name removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and blocked the board's plan to close the institution for two years of renovations, ruling that trustees handpicked by the president exceeded their statutory authority on both counts.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, in a 94-page opinion, gave the Kennedy Center 14 days to strip Trump's name from the building facade, signage and official materials, and restored voting rights to congressional appointees that the reconstituted board had stripped in March. The ruling, in a suit brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and Kennedy Center trustee, reasserts congressional control over a 1964 federal memorial that the Trump-led board had reshaped in less than six months.

Congress, not the board

Cooper, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that the 1964 statute creating the center as a living memorial to the slain president forecloses any rival dedication imposed by the trustees. "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. "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."

The judge ordered Trump's name removed from "the institution's title, as represented on the façade of the Center, any other physical or digital signage, and official materials," according to the opinion. Axios reported the decision also found that Congress took deliberate steps "to ensure that no other memorial-like dedication would grace the Center's public spaces."

A six-month takeover

The ruling unwinds, at least for now, a rapid reshaping of the institution that began in February 2025. Trump dismissed Democratic board members, installed allies including former Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, terminated longtime president Deborah Rutter and took the chair himself. In December, the reconstituted board voted to rename the facility "The Donald J Trump and the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," and construction crews mounted new signage on the exterior within a day.

The renaming drew cancellations from scheduled performers, and the board in response voted to shut the building for two years beginning in July, citing renovation needs. Cooper found that the closure decision was "ill-informed and seemingly preordained" and that the board had been "derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center." He noted that earlier board materials had described phased work that would have kept the facility open, contradicting the trustees' later claims about safety hazards.

Beatty's vote restored

Beatty, who was stripped of her vote at a March board meeting after bylaws were rewritten to make certain seats non-voting, filed the suit challenging both the name change and the closure. Cooper ruled the board "overstepped" its power in taking away her vote and ordered the rights restored.

"Today's ruling rightly affirms that this administration's efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law," Beatty said. She added in remarks reported by Al Jazeera and Axios that "the Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump."

The administration's response

The Kennedy Center said it would appeal. A spokeswoman said the institution remains "confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board's will." A Justice Department spokesperson said the department would continue defending Trump's ability to restore the center.

In a 580-word post on Truth Social that Al Jazeera reported called Judge Cooper "reckless," Trump said the judge "should be ashamed of himself." He also moved, in effect, to cede control. He said he had instructed the Commerce Department to arrange a transfer of the institution to Congress. "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," Trump wrote.

Appeal ahead

Whether the appeal arrives before the 14-day deadline to remove the signage is now the central question. The Justice Department has pledged to keep defending Trump's ability to restore the center, and the Kennedy Center spokeswoman said the institution is confident the court will uphold the board's will on appeal. Cooper's order, meanwhile, hands the renovation question and the building's future to the Congress that Trump himself has now invited to take it back.