The Kennedy Center board voted on Thursday to return Donald Trump‘s name to the front of the complex, amid a judge’s order that only Congress could change the official designation of the arts institution.
The Trump-controlled board voted to add a phrase below the center’s official name, The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, that reads, “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,” according to Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex officio member of the board, and her attorneys. The board also voted to rename the physical site “the President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” her legal team said.
The board voted to add Trump’s name to the center in December. But a federal judge ruled in May that only Congress could make such a change. The next month, a crew set up scaffolding to remove lettering with Trump’s name, but a tarp has concealed the remaining letter, with the original name of the complex, ever since.
Earlier on Thursday, the board approved a plan in which the main complex would be shuttered but a newer extension, called The Reach, would still offer limited programming and as a memorial to John F. Kennedy, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.
The board will still have to submit its actions to U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who previously ruled that the closure plan needed to consider other factors, including programming. Cooper wrote that the board was “derelict” and “based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions.” His ruling left open the possibility of closure, but only if the board conducted a more comprehensive analysis.
The board considered two options, according to The Washington Post: The two-year closure plan, and another plan that would have left the main building partially open for four years but take longer and be costlier.
Congress appropriated $257 million in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act for Kennedy Center repairs and renovations. In February, Trump announced the plan to close the complex during the overhaul, and the board, in which he leads as chairman, endorsed the proposal the next month. But Beatty sued the center over the name change and the closure, arguing that it failed to fully account for the impact on programming, among other things. The plan also was approved amid declining attendance and a number of artists pulling out of shows after the name change.
In a statement after the board meeting, Beatty said, “This morning’s decision to close the Center and the surprise agenda item to put Donald Trump’s name back on the building was more of the same. 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.”
Her legal team said that the board’s vote “appears to directly flout” the Kennedy Center statute, which prohibits “memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials” with limited exceptions.
Her attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, said in a statement that the vote was “more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts. The court already ruled against the board when it bowed to Trump’s demands. Now, the defendants must answer for their actions—again—in court.”
The center is appealing the judge’s ruling. In the meantime, Cooper has ordered a status update on the center’s plans for construction and future operations by next week, as well as on the purpose for the tarp at the front of the complex.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. The New York Times first reported on the board votes.
The center’s final large events ended in early July, the original target date for closure, but there have been smaller performances at The Reach, which opened in 2019 as a major expansion on the complex’s south side.
