Workers erect scaffolding at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, June 12, 2026.
Andrew Leyden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s name still must come off the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., a federal judge ruled Friday in rejecting a last-minute bid to block an earlier order to remove the name.
The ruling is a loss for the Trump administration, which had asked that Judge Christopher Cooper suspend his May 29 ruling in U.S. District Court in D.C. that Trump’s name come off as an appeals court considers the case
Cooper’s rejection came on the day of the deadline of his order that Trump’s name be removed from the facade of the Kennedy Center, the performing arts landmark named after the late President John Kennedy.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals could block Cooper’s order, and allow Trump’s name to remain on the facade as the case plays out.
But the appeals court has yet to rule on that request by the administration, and it is not known when it will issue a decision.
“Defendants have not carried their burden to establish that a stay of the Court’s … permanent injunction concerning the Kennedy Center’s renaming is warranted pending an appeal of the underlying ruling to the D.C. Circuit,” Cooper wrote in his order Friday.
“Most notably, for the detailed reasons laid out in the Court’s ruling, Defendants have not ‘made a strong showing that [they] are likely to succeed on the merits,’ ” the judge wrote.
“What’s more, issuance of a stay pending appeal would not be in the public interest, which is rarely served by the ‘perpetuation’ of ‘unlawful’ governmental action.”
The center had been renamed the Trump Kennedy Center in December, 10 months after Trump removed several trustees from the board and appointed himself as a trustee.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio Kennedy Center trustee, sued to block the renaming, as well as to block the closure of the center for renovations to reverse her being stripped of her voting rights by board in May 2025.
Cooper, in his May 29 ruling in Beatty’s favor, wrote, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President [John] Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote.
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