Kennedy Center Tells Court It Won’t Restore Trump’s Name Before Sept. 8
The Kennedy Center has informed a federal court that it will not attempt to restore President Donald Trump’s name to the building’s facade before September 8, according to a joint status report filed late Tuesday. The concession comes as opponents of the Trump-aligned board argue its members seem “intent on defying” an earlier court order requiring the president’s name to be removed from the iconic Washington, D.C. performing arts venue.
A Board Vote That Escalated the Dispute
The latest legal battle began on August 13, when the Kennedy Center’s board voted 20-3 to add Trump’s name to the building’s facade with the inscription reading “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” The board also voted to rename the plaza in front of the building “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” and approved a two-year closure for renovations, as AP News reported.
The resolution included an additional provision: if the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, the facade would also read “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” The board is chaired by Trump and includes administration figures such as Sergio Gor and Dan Scavino, as well as Fox News personalities Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham.
The Legal Framework
The Kennedy Center was established by Congress as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. A congressional act designates the theater complex as a memorial to Kennedy, and only Congress has the authority to change the venue’s name. This statutory framework is central to the ongoing dispute.
In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that letters affixed to the building spelling out Trump’s name were added illegally and ordered their removal. The administration failed to persuade courts to overturn the decision. In July, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the administration’s request to pause the lower court order, ruling that Trump’s name must remain off the building during the appeal.
The Tarp Controversy
Since June, a tarp has covered the area where Trump’s name was once installed on the building’s facade. The Kennedy Center maintains the covering is needed for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang,” but Rep. Joyce Beatty’s lawyers argue it is meant to “frustrate the intent of the Court’s order.”
In the latest filing, the Kennedy Center made no commitment to remove the tarp, saying it is part of a broader system needed for ongoing construction. The center’s attorneys argued the covering “was and is a necessary element of the ongoing construction activities” and helped “safeguard the marble facade of the building in light of reported panel damage,” according to Deadline.
Beatty’s lawyers, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, called the explanation a “pretextual justification.” They noted that the soffits are some twenty feet or more above the scaffolding, leaving “only the Center’s iconic name obscured—a strong indication that this structure has nothing to do with the roof and is, instead, meant to defy a return to the status quo.”
Opponents Demand Swift Court Action
In Tuesday’s filing, Beatty’s lawyers pressed Judge Cooper for an earlier ruling, arguing there is “every reason to believe that Defendants will attempt to effectuate some or part of this latest unlawful resolution at the earliest opportunity after September 8.” They described the board’s latest renaming resolution as “a breathtaking act of defiance,” as Al Jazeera reported.
“Adding the words ‘Restored and Renovated by,’ or ‘Endowed by,’ before President Trump’s name, and renaming the ground on which the building sits, provides no lawful basis to ignore this Court’s decision and impose Donald Trump’s name on a memorial dedicated by the Congress exclusively to a different President,” the lawyers wrote.
Trump administration lawyers disagreed, writing in the filing that “the record will demonstrate the Board’s prudence.”
The Two-Year Closure Plan
The board’s decision to close the building for two years of renovations has also drawn scrutiny. The Kennedy Center cited a Delta Consulting Group analyst who concluded that a partial closure over four years “would increase the length and cost of construction and lead to substantial safety concerns,” recommending a full two-year closure instead.
However, Beatty’s lawyers argued the analysis was inadequate, noting that the “substance of the presentation deck is just two slides long,” according to Forbes. They said the August vote “exhibits the same flaws as the first vote,” echoing concerns Cooper raised when he called a March vote to shutter the building “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), an ex officio board member, criticized the process as a “sham meeting,” saying “what happened today was nothing more than a rubber stamp on a decision the President made months ago that the Board already tried to effectuate without doing proper due diligence.”
The National Symphony Orchestra, an anchor tenant at the Kennedy Center, announced it will split its upcoming 2026-27 season between six venues in the greater Washington, D.C. region due to the planned closure, as NPR reported. The orchestra has fallen into a deep financial crisis amid a widespread Kennedy Center boycott by both artists and audiences.
Broader Context: Reshaping Washington
The Kennedy Center dispute is part of Trump’s broader effort to reshape the physical landscape of the nation’s capital. Other projects include demolishing the East Wing of the White House to build a controversial ballroom, remodeling the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, planning extensive renovations of a golf course in East Potomac Park, and moving forward with a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
Rep. Beatty said after the August board meeting: “This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed. I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument.”
What’s Next
The court may schedule an expedited hearing on the legality of the board’s latest resolution. Beatty’s team is calling for a discovery process rather than an expedited briefing on summary judgment. The question of whether the tarp must be removed remains unresolved, and the Kennedy Center is appealing Cooper’s May ruling in the federal appeals court.
For now, the Kennedy Center has committed to not moving forward with the Trump designations until after Labor Day “at the earliest” to allow time for legal arguments. Whether the court will allow the board to proceed after September 8 remains an open question that could determine the future of one of America’s most iconic cultural institutions.