re: New Threat to Kennedy Center: Add Trump's Name or Face Bankruptcy and Closure by Tuesday

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The hostage taking over the name change is: "There's not enough $ to fix the Kennedy Center unless Trump's name is on it."

As part of the big beautiful bill, Congress has already turned over $257 million. Why won't the Board spend THAT...and then engage in fundraising if anything else is needed?

The Center has lost $100 million in revenue since Trump became chairman of its Board.

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First, I imagine we think similarly on this in that it is not really that big of a deal, but it makes for a very interesting sideshow.

Also, I think you posted something a week or so ago in resposne to something I had written, but I forgot, exactly.

Anyways, my reading on this is that the Board has approved using the money but certain people supposedly interested in the Kennedy Center have filed lawsuits trying to stop the particularls of the Board approved rehabilitation.
I think the biggest issue these people have is that they do not want the facility shut down why the repairs happen. there is something they fear in this that I do not quite understand.
They also do not like the aesthetics of the proposal, I think.

There is also the naming issue. I keep these separate, but maybe they are connected in some way I cannot see. Perhaps the $257m does not cover what is actually being proposed and the fear is that you have a closed Center, with a building undergoing renovation and not fit for handling crowds, and no money. Thus, the only option is Trump coming in with his backers and providing the money on the condition that the Trump name be part of the Center's name?

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Thus, the only option is Trump coming in with his backers and providing the money on the condition that the Trump name be part of the Center's name?

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I think you summed it up well.

The performing arts community (performers and supporters) are probably 99.9% Anti-Trump. Artists canceled in droves when Trump named himself Chairman of the Board and the first name change happened. Revenue plummeted because of that.

There is a stalemate now. Initially, Trump said in his Truth Social of May 29, 2026 that since he couldn't run the Center the way he wanted, he was "transferring" control to Congress. I guess Lutnick intervened and suggested ways around the statutory name change problems.

As for closing for two years, ultimately, I think the Court will have to let them do that.

aaaaaand let me build a secure ballroom.


deal or no deal?

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YOU said the law forbids it. That’s a claim you made. I asked you which law? Can you not articulate your allegation?

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Of course I can. I never state something here as a fact without a factual basis.

The short answer is a combination of 20 U.S.C. § 76 (i), (j), and (k).

Judge Cooper explained the controlling statutory language really well in rejecting the initial attempt to change the name. Here's his Memorandum Opinion if you want to read it for yourself.

Judge Cooper - May Memo Opinion

If you're interested in the ChatGPT summary....

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The memorandum you're looking for is Judge Christopher R. Cooper's May 29, 2026 Memorandum Opinion in Beatty v. Trump, No. 25-cv-4480 (D.D.C.). It is the decision that granted summary judgment to Rep. Joyce Beatty on the Kennedy Center renaming issue.

The key passage
The most important portion is pages 49–52 of the memorandum (roughly lines 300–327 in the online version). Cooper first addresses the statutory naming provision:
“the statute instructs the Board to ‘construct for the Smithsonian Institution . . . a building to be designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’”

He then explains the significance of Congress's choice of the word “designate.”

The crucial conclusion comes a few paragraphs later:
“Taken together, these citations establish that the Kennedy Center must be named for, and is meant to honor, President Kennedy alone.”

And immediately afterward:
“The Defendants have identified no statutory sources that empower the Board to change the name or designate new memorials in the public areas of the Center without Congressional approval.”

Cooper then points to § 76j(b), which prohibits additional “memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials” in the Center's public areas, subject to limited exceptions.

Then he addresses the Trump-name argument directly
The defendants argued that the Board hadn't really “renamed” the Center and that Trump's name on the building wasn't a memorial.
Cooper rejected both arguments:
“Not so fast.”

He noted that “Trump Kennedy Center” had become the Center's name on its website, email communications, letterhead, and logo, and that the Center had even filed a trademark application using the new name.

Then comes perhaps the strongest language in the entire opinion:
“The ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ label adds an entirely new name to the Center’s formal title and relegates President Kennedy’s name to second place. If that is not a renaming, what is?”

And regarding Trump's name physically mounted on the building:
“That suggestion is risible, both in light of the record evidence and as a matter of common sense.”

Cooper ultimately concluded:
“In sum, the Board clearly violated the Kennedy Center’s organic statute—and the terms of the trust—when it formally renamed the Center after President Trump and memorialized him on the face of the building.”

And the actual order regarding Trump's name
The remedy is equally explicit. Cooper wrote:
“And because the Defendants are currently in violation of Congress’s express statutory direction, the Court will order that they remove President Trump’s name from the institution’s title, as represented on the façade of the Center, any other physical or digital signage, and official materials.”

Cooper's reasoning does not rest solely on the proposition that Congress named the building “John F. Kennedy Center.” He relies on the combination of:
§ 76i's designation of the building as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts;
the statutory designation of the Center as a living memorial to Kennedy;
§ 76q's designation of it as the sole national memorial to Kennedy in Washington and its environs;
§ 76j(b)'s prohibition on additional memorials or memorial-like plaques; and
the absence of any statutory authority allowing the Board to change the name or create another memorial without congressional approval.

Cooper summarizes the whole theory in one sentence:
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

That is probably the single most useful quotation if you're trying to understand or discuss the legal basis for the ruling.

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Speaking as one

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No one believes you

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No one believes you

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Why would I care?