Trump name still must come down from Kennedy Center, judge says

President Donald Trump‘s name still must come off the Kennedy Center in Washington, a federal judge ruled Friday in rejecting a last-minute bid to block an earlier order to remove the name.

The ruling is a loss for the Trump administration, which had asked that Judge Christopher Cooper suspend his May 29 ruling in U.S. District Court in D.C. that Trump’s name come off as an appeals court considers the case.

Cooper’s rejection came the day of the deadline of his order that Trump’s name be removed from the facade of the Kennedy Center, the performing arts landmark named after the late President John F. Kennedy.

Workers set up scaffolding next to the facade on Friday.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals could block Cooper’s order, and allow Trump’s name to remain on the facade as the case plays out.

The Department of Justice on Friday asked the appeals court to stay Cooper’s order.

“It does not make sense to alter the Center’s name and signage now, only to potentially revert the name again after what should be a successful appeal,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in that filing.

The appeals court has yet to rule on any such request by the administration, and it is not known when it will issue a decision. 

Cooper, in his order Friday rejecting the DOJ’s request to pause his ruling, wrote, “Defendants have not carried their burden to establish that a stay of the Court’s … permanent injunction concerning the Kennedy Center’s renaming is warranted pending an appeal of the underlying ruling to the D.C. Circuit.”

“Most notably, for the detailed reasons laid out in the Court’s ruling, Defendants have not ‘made a strong showing that [they] are likely to succeed on the merits,'” the judge wrote.

Cooper also noted that the administration has “apparently taken substantial steps toward complying” with his order that Trump’s name be removed, such as taking the president’s name off official materials at the center.

“What’s more, issuance of a stay pending appeal would not be in the public interest, which is rarely served by the ‘perpetuation’ of ‘unlawful’ governmental action.”

CNBC has requested comment from the DOJ.

The center had been renamed the Trump Kennedy Center in December, 10 months after Trump removed several trustees from the board and appointed himself as a trustee.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio Kennedy Center trustee, sued to block the renaming, as well as to block the closure of the center for renovations and to reverse her being stripped of her voting rights by the board in May 2025.

Cooper, in his May 29 ruling in Beatty’s favor, wrote, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President [John] Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote.

Beatty’s lawyers, in a filing Friday morning urging the judge to maintain his order in the face of the administration’s request, wrote, “The Court should deny Defendants’ eleventh-hour request for a stay pending appeal.”

“The Court provided Defendants with an ample fourteen-day window to comply with its order or instead appeal to the D.C. Circuit,” the filing said.

“Defendants initially chose to comply, declined to appeal, and began restoring the Kennedy Center’s digital and physical footprint, consistent with the Court’s instructions. But the night before the deadline, Defendants reversed course,” the filing said. “At nearly the last possible moment, after filing a notice of appeal, they moved the Court for the ‘exceptional relief’ of a stay pending appeal.”

“This latest gambit is frivolous. The Court should deny the motion,” Beatty’s lawyers wrote.