A federal judge has dealt a humiliating blow to President Donald Trump’s vanity-driven attempt to attach his name to the Kennedy Center.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, in a 93-page memo, rejected the president’s name change because he failed to go through Congress, as is required.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.
The Kennedy Center board, which Trump had filled with allies, didn’t do due diligence when approving the name change, Cooper explained.
“The Board 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,” he wrote.
Also on Friday, Cooper ordered that the Kennedy Center not be shut down by July 5, which Trump had planned on doing, citing repairs and restorations.
The case was brought by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex officio member of the board.
“In scenes more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than the American republic—the sitting President and his handpicked loyalists renamed this storied center,” her lawsuit said. “This is a flagrant violation of the rule of law, and it flies in the face of our constitutional order.”
The 1964 law naming the performing arts center after Kennedy designated it the “sole memorial” to him.
“Congress was particularly sensitive that no other names appear on the Center’s exterior walls, other than the signage designating the institution as a memorial for President Kennedy,” Beatty’s motion said.
Beatty praised Friday’s ruling.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” she said in a statement. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment.
Trump, in a 582-word Truth Social post, seemed to give up on his takeover of the center, writing, “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’”
He wrote that “based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”
Ahead of Judge Cooper’s ruling, the Trump-appointed executive director of the Kennedy Center fretted that removing the president’s name from its exterior would cause “irreparable harm” to fundraising.
Yet it was Trump’s involvement in the center in the first place that led to declining ticket sales, widespread artist cancellations, and the departure of the National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director.
In March, Trump fired Richard Grenell as head of the Kennedy Center, insisting that he had done an “excellent” job despite serving only 13 months in the role.
Friday’s ruling is sure to sit well with those members of the Kennedy family—like Maria Shriver, Jack Schlossberg, and Joe Kennedy III—who objected to Trump’s attempted name change.
