▶ Watch Video: Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center after court order
The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted Thursday to add President Trump’s name to the facade of the performing arts center, more than two months after a judge ordered its removal, according to a House Democrat who sits on the center’s board.
The board — which Mr. Trump filled with his allies — chose to add the phrase “Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump” to the end of the center’s formal name, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio and her lawyers said in a statement. Beatty said the board also voted to close the center for two years.
The vote marks a second attempt to put the president’s name on the outside of the building, after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that a decision to rename the center after both Kennedy and Mr. Trump violated the federal law that created the organization. Cooper also blocked the center from moving forward with a plan to close until 2028 for renovations, though the cultural institution had said it was still considering a partial or full closure.
Cooper issued his order in response to a lawsuit from Beatty. On Thursday, the congresswoman called the latest move “a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed.”
“Today’s vote is more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts,” two of Beatty’s attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, wrote in the statement. “The court already ruled against the board when it bowed to Trump’s demands. Now, the defendants must answer for their actions—again—in court.”
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said: “Under President Trump’s bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world.”
CBS News has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment.
Since returning to office last year, the president has sought to put his stamp on the Kennedy Center, replacing board members with longtime supporters who elected him chair of the organization. The changes to the center have drawn backlash from performers and congressional Democrats, leading some artists to cancel their appearances.
Then, late last year, the board voted to rename the organization as “The John F. Kennedy and The Donald J. Trump Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” which the center framed as a way of recognizing Mr. Trump’s efforts to revamp the center. The president’s name was then placed above Kennedy’s name on the building’s stone facade.
The board also voted in March to shut down for two years, arguing the building was in need of sweeping renovations.
Beatty sued over the changes, arguing the board doesn’t have the authority to temporarily shutter the Kennedy Center or change its name without permission from Congress. Her lawyers noted that the center’s name — and its role as a memorial to Kennedy — are enshrined in federal law, and the board is legally required to ensure that “no additional memorials or plaques” are installed on the site.
Cooper, an Obama-appointed judge, sided with Beatty in late May, ruling: “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” He also said the decision to shut down all operations during the center’s renovations was based on “an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information,” and the board “neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure.”
The metallic letters that spelled out Mr. Trump’s name were then removed from the building overnight on June 13, after an appeals court declined to step in at the last minute and allow the name to stay up. Two months later, the scaffolding and tarp that were placed in front of the building to remove the lettering are still up.
Mr. Trump responded to Cooper’s ruling by sharply criticizing the judge — arguing he should be impeached — and vowing to cut off his involvement with the Kennedy Center.
“So now, the Kennedy Center will collapse, both structurally and financially,” the president wrote on Truth Social in May.