Donald Trump was furious after a federal judge once again blocked his effort to put his name on the Kennedy Center — and then the president announced that the building would be shut down immediately.
The dramatic sequence unfolded Tuesday as U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump and his handpicked Kennedy Center board cannot install his name on the building or its grounds without approval from Congress.
The ruling came just hours before the board voted to close the Kennedy Center, citing safety concerns, financial problems and the need for major renovations. Trump later celebrated the decision to close the building in a lengthy Truth Social post.
Cooper’s ruling was blunt.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” he wrote.
The board had been preparing to vote on putting Trump’s name back on the building after Cooper previously ordered it removed. It also considered renaming the campus the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
That plan was shelved as the legal fight continued.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democratic member of the Kennedy Center board who has challenged Trump’s takeover of the institution, had argued that the law is clear: Congress named the institution for President John F. Kennedy, and the board cannot simply rewrite that designation.
Cooper agreed.
The judge also rejected the administration’s attempt to get around the previous ruling through alternative wording, including language describing the building as “renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump.”
Cooper noted that the government had provided no evidence that donations depended on Trump’s name appearing on the building. He also pointed to evidence that the Kennedy Center’s financial and artistic troubles had actually worsened after Trump’s name was added.
The judge cited declining revenue and contributions, artist cancellations, the Washington National Opera ending its decades-long residency and a sharp drop in ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast.
That was apparently enough to send Trump into another Truth Social tirade.
Trump declared that the Kennedy Center was “in a virtual state of collapse” and described a recent ceiling failure in a heavily trafficked hallway as an incident that could have killed someone.
“A large piece of concrete and steel just dropped down, in a thud, from the ceiling,” Trump wrote. “If the Building were open, innocent people would have been killed.”
Trump went on to argue that he was uniquely positioned to rescue the institution because he could raise money and oversee the massive reconstruction project.
“The Judge has made us keep it open even though there are no performances, and no people that would have the Courage to even go in,” Trump wrote.
He called Cooper “hostile and conflicted,” warned that the Kennedy Center was “destined to doom,” and declared: “Time is our Enemy!”
But Cooper’s ruling did not simply say that the Kennedy Center could never close.
In May, the judge blocked an earlier board decision to shut the institution for two years, finding that trustees had acted without adequately considering their statutory responsibilities and the consequences of the closure. At the same time, Cooper made clear that the board could reconsider the issue and reach a new decision after properly evaluating the situation.
That is apparently what the Trump-controlled board did Tuesday.
After Cooper rejected the latest attempt to put Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, the board voted to close the main building immediately, citing structural safety concerns and the institution’s financial condition. Reuters reported that the board said the center faces severe financial difficulties and that urgent renovations are needed.
Trump then fired off a second post announcing the closure of the center.
“The Board of The Kennedy Center today agreed, almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons,” Trump wrote, adding that the closure would take place “immediately” so the center could begin the process of reconstruction.
But there was a catch.
Trump said the actual renovation and reconstruction cannot begin until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the dispute over the board’s efforts to recognize him at the center.
And if that ruling goes against him and the Supreme Court does not overturn it, Trump said, “the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.”
He also claimed that $17 million raised by Trump had been placed into the Kennedy Center’s account to keep it afloat.
Beatty celebrated Cooper’s latest ruling, arguing that the court had once again rejected an attempt to put Trump’s name on a memorial Congress created for Kennedy.
“The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy—and no one else,” Beatty said.
Read Trump’s posts below:
