A man wheels a garbage bin outside the Kennedy Center on 6 June 2026 in Washington DC. Photograph: Rod Lamkey/AP
Kennedy Center removes Trump's name from its website after US judge's order
Performing arts venue takes down references to a 'Trump Kennedy Center' in compliance with judge's ruling
The Kennedy Center has removed Trump's name from its website after a US district judge's order last month to remove the US president's name from the performing arts venue.
The removal of Trump's name from the website on Monday came just days before a deadline instructed by the center's general counsel to remove all references to the president by 12 June.
In a memo reported by the Washington Post last Thursday, the center's general counsel referred to US district judge Christopher Cooper's order to take down all references to a 'Trump Kennedy Center', telling employees: 'To comply with this order, you must immediately change email signatures, letterheads, and other documents to reflect the name such as 'The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,' or 'Kennedy Center'.
'Other changes, such as to templates and forms, signage, brochures and website pages, must be completed no later than Friday, June 12, 2026,' the memo added.
The front of the performing arts venue in Washington DC still reads: 'The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts' as of Monday afternoon.
According to Cooper's ruling, the venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.
'The Kennedy Center's organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board's unilateral say-so … Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,' Cooper wrote in his 94-page opinion.
Cooper also temporarily blocked the venue from closing down this summer for renovations, a decision in response to Trump's handpicked board at the center who approved his $257m 'revitalization project' that would have shuttered the center for two years.
After Cooper's decision, Trump lambasted the judge on social media in a 578-word statement, saying last month: 'I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into NEVER NEVER LAND.'
