Overview
- A federal judge in Washington on Friday ordered President Trump’s name removed from the Kennedy Center façade within two weeks and temporarily blocked a planned two-year closure for renovations.
- The court said the renaming was unlawful because Congress, not the president or the center’s board, gave the institution its name when it was created in 1971.
- The Kennedy Center board said it will appeal the decision, while President Trump responded by abandoning the renovation project and directing that responsibility be transferred to Congress.
- The dispute followed Trump’s takeover of the center last year, the December addition of his name above John F. Kennedy’s, and a wave of artist cancellations and falling ticket sales tied to the changes.
- The legal fight could stretch into an appeal process or a separate congressional action to rename the building, and it highlights wider tensions over presidential control of federal cultural sites and their public programs.