A federal judge on Friday barred President Donald Trump from adding his name to that of the Kennedy Center.

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Judge Christopher Cooper also temporarily blocked the Washington, D.C., cultural landmark from being closed for two years for renovations.

The Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees in December voted to rename the institution the “Trump Kennedy Center,” 10 months after Trump removed several trustees from the board and appointed himself as a trustee.

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“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,” Cooper wrote in his order in U.S. District Court in Washington.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

Cooper’s order came as a result of a lawsuit against Trump by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees. Beatty, like other ex officio members of the board, had her voting rights stripped by the board in May 2025.

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