Judge orders Trump's name removed from the Kennedy Center

President Trump had his name added to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, having stacked its board with cronies, then closed the center for "renovations" after credible performers began giving the fabled institution a wide berth. A judge today ordered Trump's name removed from the center, ruled that only Congress can rename it, and ordered it to be reopened.

"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," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote. "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."

Reuters reports that the outcome concludes a lawsuit brought by Ohio Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, who said that the "Kennedy Center is an institution ​that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump."

Trump's plan ‌to ⁠renovate the center is part of a broader push by the Republican leader to reshape Washington's monumental core. He also intends to erect a 250-foot (76-meter) arch and to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House.

Those efforts also face court challenges. A federal appeals court has allowed the Trump administration to ​move ahead with building the ​ballroom as it considers ⁠the case.

The Kennedy Center isnt the only federal entity Trump renamed after himself without the congressional authorization such changes require: the U.S. Institute of Peace was rebranded the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. He opened his term by signing an executive order changing the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," and he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have spent tens of millions of dollars rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War. He also wants his name, and his mugshot, on the money.

Previously:
• Kennedy Center programming head quits after six days on the job
• Kennedy Center's name change costs it New Year's shows and credibility
• Trump shuts down Kennedy Center; nearly all programming heads have quit
• New Kennedy Center leadership censors award-winning musical about a sparkle-loving shark