The Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to immediately close the performing arts complex for extensive safety repairs, hours after a federal judge again barred the board from placing President Donald Trump’s name on the federally designated memorial without congressional approval.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
The Kennedy Center will close immediately after its board voted Tuesday to shut down the Washington performing arts complex for extensive rehabilitation, citing deteriorating concrete, water intrusion and other structural concerns.
The decision came only hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper blocked the board from adding inscriptions honoring President Donald Trump to the center or renaming its grounds for him. Trump, who serves as chairman of the board, announced the closure following the trustees’ vote.
Trump said the center would close for safety reasons but that the planned reconstruction would not begin while the dispute over the board’s naming proposal remains before the courts.
“The Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name,” Trump said. He added that the Justice Department would seek expedited appellate review.
The board’s action follows months of conflict over the future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including its name, finances and physical condition.
Cooper ruled Tuesday that the trustees cannot establish additional presidential memorials at the center without congressional authorization.
“Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote.
The dispute stems from the Kennedy Center’s status under federal law as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy.
Congress strengthened restrictions on additions to the memorial in 1983, directing the board to ensure that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials” are installed in the center’s public areas after Dec. 2, 1983, apart from several specifically defined exceptions.
Cooper concluded that the board’s most recent proposals fell within those restrictions.
The trustees had considered inscriptions recognizing Trump for overseeing the center’s renovation and restoration, along with a plan to designate the surrounding campus the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
Tuesday’s order prevents both actions unless Congress provides the necessary authorization.
It marked the second major judicial defeat for the board over Trump’s name.
The trustees previously changed the building’s facade in December 2025 to read “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Cooper ruled in May that the board lacked authority to make that change and ordered Trump’s name removed.
Workers removed the lettering in June, leaving much of the exterior covered by scaffolding and a white tarp.
The board returned in August with alternatives intended to recognize Trump without formally changing the institution’s statutory name. Those proposals included inscriptions crediting him with the renovation and renaming the plaza in his honor.
Cooper rejected that distinction Tuesday, finding that federal restrictions apply to memorial inscriptions as well as an outright renaming.
Shortly afterward, trustees voted to close the center for repairs.
Trump said $17 million he has raised has already been placed into the Kennedy Center’s account to help keep the institution financially afloat while the legal and renovation disputes continue.
The center has separately warned of serious financial trouble.
Documents prepared ahead of Tuesday’s meeting said the institution could become unable to meet payroll and routine maintenance obligations within weeks. The board has argued that Trump’s continued involvement in fundraising and reconstruction is important to the center’s financial recovery.
The facility’s physical condition has also become central to the debate.
Kennedy Center Vice President of Public Relations Roma Daravi said the board acted because extensive rehabilitation was “long overdue and desperately needed to protect the safety of patrons, artists, and staff.”
Officials have cited years of water intrusion, deterioration of concrete and problems involving electrical infrastructure exposed to moisture.
Those concerns intensified this month when a large section of material fell from the ceiling in the center’s Grand Foyer.
Trump and center officials have said the slab weighed more than 150 pounds and fell approximately 60 feet, narrowly avoiding people below. No injuries were reported.
Trump has pointed to the incident as evidence that the complex can no longer safely remain open during a major rehabilitation project.
The board similarly maintains that the condition of the building now requires more than piecemeal repairs.
Federal law gives the Kennedy Center board authority to arrange contracts for repairs, maintenance, restoration and environmental systems. The same statute, however, places separate restrictions on memorials and changes involving the center’s grounds.
That distinction is at the heart of the ongoing court fight.
The board maintains it possesses authority to oversee urgently needed repairs and argues that recognizing Trump’s role in securing money and managing the reconstruction is appropriate.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio Kennedy Center trustee who brought the lawsuit, argues that Congress deliberately limited the board’s authority to alter the Kennedy memorial and that trustees cannot circumvent those restrictions through alternative wording.
Cooper sided with Beatty on the naming issue Tuesday.
The judge had also blocked an earlier attempt to close the center, finding in May that the board had not adequately considered the consequences of shutting down the facility.
Tuesday’s vote renews the closure effort under substantially different circumstances, with trustees now citing additional structural deterioration and a recent ceiling failure.
The shutdown carries significant consequences for one of the country’s best-known performing arts institutions.
The Kennedy Center traditionally hosts theater, opera, orchestral performances, dance and other programming while serving as the home of major arts organizations.
Its operations have already been disrupted by leadership changes, canceled performances, financial problems and continuing construction disputes. The Washington National Opera and National Symphony Orchestra have also had to make plans involving alternative venues.
How long the facility remains closed now depends partly on what happens in court.
Trump said the board intends the shutdown to take effect immediately, but he has tied the beginning of the large-scale reconstruction project to the outcome of an appeal over the proposed recognition of his name.
“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be … the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” Trump said.
That leaves the institution in an unusual position: closed on safety grounds while the start of the rehabilitation Trump says is necessary remains connected to a separate legal dispute over how, or whether, he may be recognized at the Kennedy memorial.
For now, Cooper’s ruling leaves the legal boundary unchanged.
The Kennedy Center board can oversee repairs and restoration within its statutory authority, but it cannot add a new presidential memorial or rename the grounds for Trump without Congress.
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