President Donald Trump took aim at the judge who halted his plans to renovate the Kennedy Center — and ordered Trump’s name taken off the building — saying the judge should “be ashamed of himself,” because the center is “structurally dangerous” and a threat to public safety.
In the wake of the judge’s ruling, Trump said he will order the Commerce Department to transfer the Kennedy Center to Congress “so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”
Trump earlier this year had said the Kennedy Center would shut down for two years starting July 4, 2026, to undergo a “complete rebuilding.” In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Kennedy Center officials to remove Trump’s name from the building within two weeks and blocked Trump and the center from taking any further steps to close the institution for repairs. The judge found that the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees had acted illegally in voting to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center.
In a 580-word post on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote, “Shockingly, a Judge appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, Christopher Cooper, ruled that The Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for largescale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World, is not allowed to close for these renovations, which would not be possible to properly do without such a closure.”
