Justice Department lawyers are arguing that Donald Trump’s name must go on the Kennedy Center, or it will risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.
Trump’s handpicked board at the center voted last December to add his name to the prestigious Washington, D.C., venue, and fresh signage went up the next day to rename the building “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
A federal judge ordered the name removed in May, ruling that only Congress has the authority to rename a building it designated as a tribute to the late President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. Trump’s name came off by a June 12 deadline, and a tarp has since covered the building’s facade, feeding weeks of speculation.
The president’s lawyers have now asked an appeals court for an emergency stay while they work on having the earlier ruling reversed. They argue that donor gifts will have to be “returned, refunded, or terminated” if Trump’s name is stripped from the venue or its branding, The Atlantic reports.
That obligation is apparently written into the bylaws of a foundation nobody had heard of before this month: the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. Business records reviewed by the outlet show it was created this spring as the product of a March 18 relabeling of the nonprofit Kennedy Center Foundation, established under President Joe Biden in 2024.
Governance details, such as who now runs the organization and why money pledged earlier would suddenly need clawing back, are reportedly absent from the paperwork.
The existence of a parallel Trump Kennedy Center Fund also surfaced during a June 12 vote by the venue’s board.
Spokeswoman Roma Daravi, a former ballet instructor who became Trump’s deputy director of strategic communications during his first administration, said at the time that the fund was supposed to recognize the president’s “significant contributions and dedication to America’s premier cultural center, while furthering our founding mission like never before.” How it meshes with the Kennedy Center Foundation is unclear.
The renaming has been one flashpoint in the chaos that has convulsed the venue since Trump took the chairmanship in February 2025. He purged the bipartisan board, installed loyalists in their place, and made his close ally Richard Grenell its president, a post he held until March.
He then reshaped the schedule, scrubbing Pride events after vowing to end “drag shows specifically targeting our youth.” The moves triggered a wave of departures, including treasurer Shonda Rhimes and advisers Ben Folds and Renée Fleming, while acts from composer Lin-Manuel Miranda to actress Issa Rae canceled bookings.
Grenell cast the departing performers as “far left political activists” booked under prior leadership. He has since exited the role. Trump announced on March 13 that he was installing operations executive Matt Floca in his place, capping a turbulent stint dogged by cancellations, sliding ticket sales, and graft allegations the outgoing chief rejected.
Trump has left his mark on the structure as well. The president had the venue’s signature gold columns repainted white last year—a swap he touted on Truth Social, deriding the previous finish as “fake looking”—and the willow trees torn out along the Potomac terrace.
He has since floated a far grander refurbishment, ordering a two-year shutdown from July for a $200 million project he says will bring new seating, marble armrests, carpeting, chandeliers, and overhauled heating and cooling. Renderings he has posted of the finished exterior look much like the existing one.
It represents just one piece of a construction spree that real estate mogul Trump has driven across the U.S. capital. He has razed the White House East Wing to clear ground for a $600 million ballroom, paved over the Rose Garden, and smothered the Oval Office in gold. Federal buildings, including the Justice Department, have been draped in banners bearing his face.
Trump has cast the work as restoration and pledged more, from a 250-foot “Triumphal Arch” overshadowing Arlington National Cemetery to a $14 million “American flag blue” recoating of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that has so far succeeded only in turning its waters vibrant green with algae.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Kennedy Center for comment on this story.
