Judge says Kennedy Center board broke law putting Trump’s name on building and blocks closure

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Friday President Donald Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center and stopped the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations — the latest legal setback to Trump’s efforts to leave his personal mark on the landscape of the nation’s capital.

Trump said in a statement he is stepping back from his proposed refurbishment and leaving the arts institution to Congress.

“Unless I’m able to do what I do best, bring this Institution back, physically, financially and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what would be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., said the Kennedy Center board’s March 16 vote to close the facility was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with little consideration for its legal obligations. The government had said work was to begin in July and take about two years but Cooper’s order puts a hold on those plans for now.

“The trustees may have considered the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. “It was not one,” he wrote.

Cooper also found that the board “exceeded its statutory bounds” by placing Trump’s name on the center unilaterally. “The Kennedy Center’s name was given by Congress and only Congress can change it,” he stated.

The judge, appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, ordered the defendants to remove Trump’s name from the institution’s façade and any “official materials,” including digital or physical signs, within two weeks.

“Can the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed without congressional approval? The answer is no, obvious from the face of the statute. “No one else can be memorialized on the front portico of the building,” Cooper wrote.

The Republican president said he had ordered his administration to “make all necessary arrangements” to hand over the center to Congress.

Trump is trying to leave his stamp on DC Making his own mark on some of the most iconic locations in Washington has been a priority of Trump’s second term. He knocked down the East Wing of the White House and put up a ballroom. His name and image are now displayed in federal facilities, including the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Justice Department headquarters. He is campaigning for a triumphant arch looking over the Potomac River.

Opponents have challenged other Trump development projects in court – and received favorable judgments. But the district court judges probably won’t have the last word as the government pursues appeals.

The Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, Roma Daravi, said Friday that the organization is “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.” The judgment will be "carefully" examined, she said.

“The reality is — the Center needs urgent and significant restoration — a fact even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to exploring every legal option to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”

In late April, Cooper convened hearings on dueling lawsuits contesting the project. A coalition of cultural and historic preservation groups filed one. The other was introduced by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. He accepted Beatty's plea, but refused the other challenge.

Beatty described the decision as a victory for the Kennedy Center and for the performing arts. She told The Associated Press: "I hope that people can come back to work now and we can continue to be the Kennedy Center that we were intended to be."

Justice Department lawyers argued the plans for renovating the building are restricted in scale and fully within the board's power to make without clearance from outside.

What sort of revamp do we need?

The plaintiffs fear the president and his allies on the board will ignore preservation laws meant to protect the historic fabric of the building. In earlier remarks during court hearings, attorneys representing Beatty and the preservation groups questioned the project’s limited scope, citing Trump’s pledge to “fully expose” the steel structure of the skyscraper.

“I’m very fearful we’ll see what happened with the East Wing and what happened with the Rose Garden,” Beatty said, referencing major alterations the president has made at the White House if the center is shuttered and renovations are done unchecked.

Kennedy Center executive director and chief operating officer Mike Floca spent a few weeks in the spring leading a bipartisan group of lawmakers and their staffs, as well as journalists and Washington city officials, through the sprawling building that covers 1.5 million square feet.

The excursions were designed to prove that the Kennedy Center, which broke ground in 1965, was indeed in need of a renovation. The walkthroughs revealed significant water damage, including discolored spots and standing water in locations. Some of the equipment, including a number of 800-ton chillers that help cool the structure, is decades old and needs to be replaced.

Floca told reporters in April that he had contemplated completing the renovations piecemeal, but said it was his advice to Trump that the building be shut down and the rehabilitation done all at once.

Since his return to the White House last year, Trump has expressed an intense interest in the workings of the Kennedy Center. He installed a hand-picked board which appointed him chairman. His name was placed on the front of a building that is seen as a living tribute to Kennedy.

Leading up to the shutdown, performances have continued at the Kennedy Center, although at a significantly slower pace than in other years. Trump went to the opening of the musical “Chicago” in March, and additional productions, such as “Moulin Rouge,” are on the docket for June.

Comedian Bill Maher, who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Trump, was to be presented the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June 28, in what was thought to be one of the last great moments at the Kennedy Center before the shutdown.