Kennedy Center dispute ends in court setback for Trump
US President Donald Trump has announced plans to withdraw from leadership of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after a federal judge ruled that his name could not remain on the building and temporarily blocked its planned closure, reports a Qazinform News Agency correspondent.
The decision was issued by Judge Christopher Cooper, who found that the Kennedy Center's governing statute does not allow the institution to be renamed without congressional approval.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
The dispute stems from changes made after Trump returned to office in 2025. He replaced several Democratic members of the center’s bipartisan board, removed longtime president Deborah Rutter, and was later elected board chair. In December, the board voted to add Trump’s name to the venue, prompting criticism from opponents who argued the move violated the law establishing the center as a memorial to former President John F. Kennedy.
Cooper also overturned a board policy limiting voting rights for certain trustees and issued a temporary injunction preventing the center from closing for planned renovations.
Trump sharply criticized the ruling in a post on Truth Social, calling Cooper unfair and pledging to hand responsibility for the institution back to Congress.
“We are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it,” Trump wrote.
He added: “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’”
Representative Joyce Beatty, who challenged the closure in court, welcomed the ruling.
“The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump,” Beatty said.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran were “proceeding nicely” and called for a broad expansion of the Abraham Accords, urging several Middle Eastern and Muslim majority nations to join what he described as a historic peace coalition.