On Tuesday, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Trump administration cannot install a new Trump sign on the Kennedy Center’s facade or name its plaza for the President. “Simply put,” Cooper writes, “Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.” The ruling is a victory for Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, the Kennedy Center trustee who sued in December to stop the institution from being renamed for Trump.
In a recent court filing, the Department of Justice wrote that a court order blocking the Trump sign would “cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop. There will simply not be the expertise or funding necessary to rebuild and renovate this decimated structure.” Installing the Trump sign, the administration argued, is the only way to keep the Kennedy Center from financial and structural collapse. The government’s filing added that without the new sign, “the Kennedy Center cannot be saved” and might even need to be torn down.
In Tuesday’s opinion, Judge Cooper explicitly addressed this argument, reiterating his previous position that the Department of Justice has provided “no proof that current or future donations hinge on President Trump’s name being on the building” and “no competent evidence that removing the Trump name would prevent the Center from fulfilling its artistic mission, as it has done for the last sixty years.” In fact, he added, “evidence before the Court pointed in the opposite direction: The renaming of the Center coincided with declines in revenue and contributions, as artists cancelled performances, the Washington National Opera ended its 50-year residency, and ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast dropped precipitously.” Cooper then appeared to scold the administration, noting that the court cannot allow the Kennedy Center to install an illegal sign “under threat that some unidentified donors will withhold their largesse if the Board is not allowed to have its way.” He added that the court “can even less reward a decision by Board members, including the Chair, to curb the Center’s fundraising efforts because they cannot abide statutory restrictions on displaying his name.” He also accused the government of playing “word games” by trying to install a new Trump sign with slightly different verbiage than the one he’d previously ruled was unlawful.
