Kennedy Center
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A federal judge has blocked President Trump from adding his name to the Kennedy Center, saying that the Washington, D.C. arts complex was named for the late president John F. Kennedy. In a ruling on Friday, the judge also temporarily blocked the administration from closing the Kennedy Center for a planned two-year renovation that was slated to begin in July.
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling that: "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. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/29/nx-s1-5839349/president-trump-kennedy-center-name-judge-order
A federal judge has blocked President Trump from adding his name to the Kennedy Center, saying that the Washington, D.C. arts complex was named for the late president John F. Kennedy. In a ruling on Friday, the judge also temporarily blocked the administration from closing the Kennedy Center for a planned two-year renovation that was slated to begin in July.
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling that: "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. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/29/nx-s1-5839349/president-trump-kennedy-center-name-judge-order
I thought that might happen. Good.
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President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration will transfer control of the Kennedy Center to Congress, after a judge ordered the removal of Trump's name from the iconic Washington venue and blocked his plans to close it for renovations.
Trump said on social media that he instructed the U.S. Commerce Department to "make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution" and give lawmakers responsibility over its operation, maintenance and management.
It was not immediately clear how Trump's directive could be carried out. The Kennedy Center was created by Congress in 1958 and is run by a board of trustees that the president has packed with allies in his second term.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-orders-removal-trumps-name-kennedy-center-2026-05-29/
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Deeper dive into the points raised by the retired judges:
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/30/nx-s1-5839989/judge-review-trump-anti-weaponization-fund
And here's their amicus brief:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28176766-motion-from-35-former-federal-judges/
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Man, they don't miss a beat, do they?
In a last-ditch effort to halt the judge’s order, the Kennedy Center sought to block it late Thursday. The judge denied that request Friday, hours before the deadline for removing Trump’s name.
In a filing to a federal appeals court seeking to block the judge’s order, the center argued for the first time that taking Trump’s name off the building would result in having to return hundreds of millions of dollars that the center has raised for renovations due to a previously unannounced change to the center’s bylaws.
“All of this money, hundreds of millions of dollars, will have to be immediately returned, or not received by the Center,” the filing said.
The filing said the “reason for this clause is that people and companies, who have given, or will be giving, millions of dollars to the Center were only willing to do so with the name ‘Trump’ on the Building.”
It does not say how, when or where the change was made to the center’s bylaws. The Kennedy Center did not respond to inquiries about when the changes were made and exactly how much money might be at risk.
The appeals court on Friday night denied the Kennedy Center’s request for a pause.
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So they didn't have tarps up to hide what the workers were doing when they put Trump's name up there, but they did last night when they took his name down.
Waste of (more) taxpayer money.
edited to add (I missed that they used cherry pickers to put the name up back in December):
Workers spent hours Friday slowly putting up scaffolding in front of the Kennedy Center to reach the letters. Several commentators noted that when the letters were installed back in December, cherry pickers were used to do the job much quicker, leading to speculation the scaffolding was ordered to create additional delays and give Trump’s appeals more time.
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Not even one Scaramucci's worth.
In a Jan. 16 news release, the Kennedy Center announced that Kevin Couch would be its new senior vice president of artistic programming.
On Jan. 22, the center posted the announcement on X.
Not a week later, Couch resigned.
Couch confirmed his resignation Wednesday but declined to comment further.
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