The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Thursday to close the center for renovations for a second time, while keeping a smaller, separate theater open.
This week’s vote marked a dramatic escalation in the legal battle over the historic center: the Trump-allied board also moved to inscribe the president’s name beneath the signage—a direct rebuke of a May federal court order that had blocked both the closure and a name change. According to the New York Times, the board has approved an inscription beneath the center’s name reading: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”
The Kennedy Center board voted last December to change the institution’s name to include Trump and to add his name to the marble facade, triggering a financial crisis as performers began dropping from the roster in protest. In the ensuing months, the White House, federal courts, and Washington preservationists have been locked in a legal standoff over where the authority to rename the center lies. Legal experts noted the name change may violate a stipulation established after Congress renamed the center following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on May 29 that the board had acted unlawfully in renaming the institution, finding that only Congress held that power. He also found the board had acted unlawfully in approving a two-year closure for renovations.
Until now, the Trump administration had pursued conventional legal channels to fight the ruling: first a motion in June, which was denied. The President’s name was removed from the facade that month, and scrubbed from the center’s letterhead, website, and other official branding. In July, a federal appeals court denied a bid to restore Trump’s name, finding that the administration had failed to prove the arts complex would be “irreparably injured” by the institution reverting to its original name.
The board’s Thursday resolution reportedly directed officials to pursue “all legal means” to defend what it called President Trump’s rescue of the center “from the brink of disaster.”
“It is hereby resolved, that the center desires to recognize and honor President Trump’s existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the center by all legal means,” the measure said, according to the Times. The meeting was held virtually and not open to the public.
The Kennedy Center, whose chairman has been Trump since February 2025, voted this past March to close the institution for two years for renovations. Judge Cooper blocked the closure, calling it “derelict” for the board to vote without considering the impact on the capital’s leading performing arts institution.
“The board will be expected to prepare itself with sufficient information to make a considered, independent decision,” the judge wrote in May, “taking account of its obligation to both maintain and operate a premiere arts venue and its solemn duty to memorialize a fallen president.”
In response, the president took to social media to berate Judge Cooper as an “anti-Trump hater” and predict that the center would “soon be closed, probably never to open again.” Throughout the case, the institution has argued that removing then restoring the president’s name would waste “time and money” and risk losing donor gifts given only “with the name ‘Trump’ on the building.”
Judge Cooper is expected to soon review—again—the legality of the latest closure and renaming decisions.
The Kennedy Center has grown increasingly marooned from its many patrons and performing arts peers in recent months, and today has a starkly sparse programming schedule. In January, celebrated composer Philip Glass announced his withdrawal of a symphony honoring Abraham Lincoln that was scheduled for its first-ever performance by the National Symphony Orchestra in June. Meanwhile, the Washington National Opera, which had performed there since 1971, moved out in January, citing low attendance.
ARTnews has contacted the Kennedy Center for comment.
