WASHINGTON — U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, enjoined the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board from inscribing “renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump” on the main building or renaming the campus the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” — and hours later the Trump-chaired board voted to immediately shutter the main building for renovations, citing an “unsafe” structure, according to court filings and reporting.

In a 22-page memorandum opinion and order in Beatty v. Trump (1:25-cv-04480-CRC), Cooper granted in part Rep. Joyce Beatty’s emergency motion. “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted,” he wrote. The governing statute, 20 U.S.C. § 76j(b)(1), provides that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” of the Center.

Cooper’s earlier permanent injunction had already ordered Trump’s name removed from the portico after the board’s prior rename attempt; that injunction remains operative pending appeal. On Aug. 13, 2026, the board passed a new resolution seeking the “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump” inscription, an “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” recognition if a $100 million fundraising threshold is met, and the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” grounds rename. Cooper blocked the first and third as memorials violating the injunction and statute; he denied as unripe relief against the endowment inscription, finding Beatty had not shown it would be installed imminently, and ordered 60 days’ written notice before any such fundraising acknowledgment.

NBC News reported the board then voted Tuesday to immediately close the main building, with a draft resolution citing a construction consultant and the center’s director saying the building is “unsafe for continued occupancy” and referencing a partial Grand Foyer ceiling collapse earlier this month. It was the third closure vote since February; Beatty has challenged prior shutdown pushes in court. Cooper has previously noted his order blocking full closure still allowed emergency repairs. Trump joined the closed-door meeting virtually and criticized Beatty and the judge, a source familiar with the meeting told NBC.

CBS News reported Cooper sided with Beatty that the latest name push violated federal law and the prior order. Beatty said Trump is “holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial.” Cooper wrote that the government offered “no proof that current or future donations hinge on President Trump’s name being on the building,” and that evidence pointed the other way — declines in revenue and contributions after the rename attempt, artists canceling, the Washington National Opera ending its residency, and weaker Honors broadcast viewership — while Congress has already appropriated $257 million for capital improvements.

Congress named the building for one president and banned extra memorials in the public areas for a reason. Threatening bankruptcy unless a living politician’s name goes on the façade is not fundraising strategy — it is leverage against a statute the board does not get to rewrite.

Sources