A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump cannot slap his own name on the Kennedy Center in a decision released on Friday.The opinion follows the decision by the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, stacked with Trump appointees, to rename the memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy to include Trump’s name on Dec. 18, 2025. Trump’s name was added to the building the next day. Then in March, Trump announced on his social media site that the center would close to undergo large-scale renovations. The closure announcement, however, came after a raft of performers canceled shows and ticket sales plummeted in the wake of the boards’ actions.Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, filed suit in December 2025 to challenge the board’s actions both renaming the center and closing it for two years. The decision released on Friday by Judge Christopher Cooper largely sided with Beatty’s challenge.“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,” the decision by Judge Christopher Cooper states. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”In addition to blocking the Kennedy Center from bearing Trump’s name, Cooper’s decision declares that the board was “derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center” when it voted to close it for two years for repairs. Cooper also found that the board could not exclude ex officio members, like Beatty, from voting on these decisions.Cooper’s decision suspended the board’s closure order for the center, but did not prevent the board from moving ahead with repairs. The board could vote to close the center again “should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion,” Cooper wrote.Trump’s efforts to seize control of the center and rename it after himself began within weeks of taking office in 2025. He fired the board chair and removed a number of trustees while naming himself board chair and hiring a longtime lackey, Richard Grenell, as the center’s president in February 2025. (Grenell later left and was replaced by Matt Floca.) The new board then reconvened in May 2025 and voted to disallow ex officio members from voting.In December, the board voted unanimously to rename the center to include Trump’s name without any debate or discussion. During the meeting where the vote was held, Beatty, who could not vote, found herself involuntarily muted and unable to speak up on the issue.The closure announcement in March on Trump’s Truth Social account was the first time the board heard about the decision, according to Cooper’s decision. Floca testified that it was his idea, but that he did not base this plan on any new assessment or relevant contemporary studies despite Trump announcing that the closure came after a one-year review of the center. The collapse in the center’s programming, precipitated by the board’s addition of Trump’s name, did not prompt Floca’s decision-making, but did play a role.“Presented with a ‘unique’ opportunity given the lapse in programming, the OBBBA appropriation, and ‘a leadership team that [would] prioritize’ the renovation, Floca considered the next two years a ‘perfect time to do this work,’” Cooper wrote, quoting Floca’s testimony.The Kennedy Center opened its doors in 1971 as a national cultural center and memorial to President Kennedy. It serves as the location of numerous artistic events, hosts operas, concerts and other performances and acts as the home for the National Symphony Orchestra. Its closure marked a huge blow to the cultural scene in Washington, D.C.RelatedDonald Trumpkennedy center