Donald Trump’s attempt to put his name on John F. Kennedy’s memorial despite a federal judge’s ruling forbidding it heads to a federal court reckoning this Thursday.
Nearly three months have passed since U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the Trump administration to remove his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote on May 29, 2026.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who filed the original lawsuit opposing the re-dedication of the Kennedy Center, noted that didn’t end the matter.
In the opening line of a legal brief, her attorney Nathaniel Zelinsky encapsulated Trump’s defiance by quoting baseball legend Yogi Berra: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” The legal brief summarized how we got here:
“The Court ordered Defendants to remove President Trump’s name from the façade […] After waiting until the last possible minute, Defendants complied in the early morning hours of June 13, 2026. In an act of obvious petulance, however, Defendants hung a tarp over the building’s iconic lettering, obscuring President Kennedy’s name from the face of the institution meant to memorialize his legacy.”
“Now, in a new and breathtaking act of defiance of Congress and of this Court, Defendants have voted to return President Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center’s façade. This time, Trump’s name will appear on the building’s front portico not once, but twice. Underneath President Kennedy’s name, it will say: ‘Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump’ and ‘Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.’”
At a hearing on Thursday, Judge Cooper will determine whether Trump will get away with this game of “whack-a-mole.”
“If permitted to proceed, Defendants will openly flout the law, and—as they apparently did the first time they unlawfully tacked President Trump’s name onto the marble edifice—risk added damage to the historic façade,” the brief states. “Plaintiff respectfully requests the Court issue an order permanently enjoining Defendants’ latest actions and put an end to this childish gambit.”
The Kennedy Center’s board indicated that it plans to proceed with construction on Sept. 8.
Rep. Beatty wants Cooper to act before that deadline: “Anything less would do considerable harm to the public’s faith in the rule of law.”
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