{"id":43786,"date":"2026-08-14T06:57:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43786"},"modified":"2026-08-14T06:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:57:35","slug":"kennedy-center-board-restores-trumps-name-testing-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43786","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center board restores Trump&#039;s name, testing judge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/w6ExgMJ2kdzuC_YaITmL8TtHXsQ=\/0x521:5000x3333\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/13\/1786646275395.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to again add President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump&#8217;s<\/a> name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, two anonymous sources told Axios.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>The move challenges a federal judge&#8217;s ruling back in May that only Congress could change the name of the performing arts venue, and that Trump&#8217;s name must be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/29\/trump-kennedy-center-name-removed-closure\" target=\"_blank\">removed<\/a>. That process was completed in June. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li> U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded that the board had &#8220;overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming&#8221; the center after the president.<\/li>\n<li>The administration has appealed the ruling. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in: <\/strong>Thursday&#8217;s vote won&#8217;t make Trump&#8217;s name part of the complex. Instead, an inscription will go below the Kennedy Center sign that reads &#8220;Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,&#8221; and the physical site will be renamed &#8220;the President Donald J. Trump Plaza.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decision is likely meant to circumvent both the judge&#8217;s ruling and a federal law that oversees the Kennedy Center, which reads in part, &#8220;no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court&#8217;s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed. I will continue to fight for this treasured national monument,&#8221; Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) said in a statement. <\/li>\n<li>Beatty sits on the board as an ex officio member and previously sued the administration to halt the addition of Trump&#8217;s name to the Kennedy Center. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>The board also voted Thursday to move forward with a two-year closure of the center&#8217;s main venue for renovations, despite Cooper temporarily blocking plans to shut it down. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Under President Trump&#8217;s bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world,&#8221; White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Axios.<\/li>\n<li>Representatives for the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to Axios&#8217; request for comment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/washington-dc\/2026\/08\/12\/trump-kennedy-center-renovation-plans\" target=\"_blank\">Scoop: Take a look at Trump&#8217;s Kennedy Center renovation plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This story has been updated with additional context throughout.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Cuneyt Dil contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to again add President Trump&#8217;s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, two anonymous sources told Axios. Why it matters: The move challenges a federal judge&#8217;s ruling back in May that only Congress could change the name of the performing arts venue, and that Trump&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/w6ExgMJ2kdzuC_YaITmL8TtHXsQ=\/0x521:5000x3333\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/13\/1786646275395.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}