President Donald Trump said the board of the Kennedy Center voted Tuesday to shut down the building for “safety reasons,” coming shortly after a federal judge again ruled that the performing arts center was legally prohibited from adding Trump’s name in any way. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the board of the Kennedy Center agreed “almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction.” The closing will be effective immediately, he said. However, Trump said, the renovation project “cannot begin until such time as the D.C.
Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name. If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.” Attorneys from the Justice Department will ask for “an expedited appeal” in the matter, according to Trump.
The DOJ’s appeal is expected to be filed Friday, CNN reported. A federal judge previously barred the Kennedy Center from shutting down as Trump had wanted for a two-year renovation. Trump called in to Tuesday’s Kennedy Center board meeting, during which he “screamed” and “berated” U.S.
Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who serves on the board, according to the CNN report. Beatty had sued the Kennedy Center and Trump over the renaming of the cultural institution. After she won a ruling requiring the center to remove Trump’s name from the façade and other materials, the board in August proposed adding Trump’s name in three other places at the Kennedy Center.
In response, Beatty filed an emergency motion to stop the arts center from moving forward with the new plans to add Trump’s name, and a judge granted that request Tuesday. On Tuesday, Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled that the board of the Kennedy Center — which is mostly comprised of Trump loyalists — cannot legally add his name in other places on the building or its grounds.
The performing arts center complied with his order, and since then a tarp has covered the front façade. However, Cooper wrote in the ruling, “the drama at the Kennedy Center continues. Despite the Court’s order, on August 13, 2026, the Board passed a resolution ‘to recognize and honor President Trump’s current and future existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the Center’ in three different ways.” Per the board’s resolution, on the façade below its official name, “The John F.
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