Kennedy Center removes Trump’s name from website after judge’s ruling
The Kennedy Center on Monday removed President Donald Trump’s name from its website, although the front of the venue still read: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
The change came more than a week after a federal judge ruled the center’s board of trustees had illegally renamed the venue and ordered the restoration of its title, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On Thursday, the center ordered staff to erase Trump’s name from official materials, giving them until this Friday to restore the website and make all other changes.
When asked about the erasure of Trump’s name, the Kennedy Center referred to a statement that spokeswoman Roma Daravi made about last week’s order.
“We are complying with the court’s order while evaluating all legal options to preserve this revitalization and recognize President Trump’s leadership,” Daravi said in the statement.
By Monday, the center had also updated its YouTube page to no longer include Trump’s name. Branding for the “Trump Kennedy Center” remained on several of the center’s social media pages, including Facebook, Instagram and X.
Removing Trump’s name from the website is the most concrete public reversal yet in the president’s campaign to take control of the performing arts venue.
In February 2025, Trump moved to purge the center’s board of trustees, replacing members with political allies who elected him board chair. In December, the reconstituted board voted to rename the venue, and crews added Trump’s name to the exterior the next day.
Trump suggested the board’s vote caught him off guard, though he had floated the idea of naming the center after himself for months. His name appeared on the website within hours and on the building’s sign by the next morning.
Richard Grenell, who was then the president of the Kennedy Center, said in a since-deleted social media post that by renaming the venue, the “Trump Kennedy Center shows a bipartisan commitment to the Arts.”
Justice Department lawyers later conceded that, given how quickly the signage went up, it had been “prepared and/or purchased prior to the Board’s vote the day before.”
The renaming drew swift condemnation from arts figures and members of the Kennedy family, who said it defiled a living memorial to the assassinated president. Congress created the center in 1964, two months after Kennedy’s death, calling it “the sole national monument to his memory within the city of Washington and its environs.” Under the law establishing the institution, critics noted, only Congress holds authority to change its name.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio board member, sued fellow trustees in December after she was muted during a virtual board meeting while trying to oppose the name change.
In ruling the name change was illegal, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said that Congress had been “crystal clear” when it renamed the National Cultural Center as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” and designated it a “living memorial” to the slain president.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name,” he wrote. “And only Congress can change it.”