President Trump attacked the federal judge who blocked his plan to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation in a Truth Social post Saturday, one day after the judge ordered the president’s name removed from the building.
In a 94-page opinion issued Friday on what would have been President John F. Kennedy’s 109th birthday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board. Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, found that the Trump-stacked board overstepped its authority when it voted in December 2025 to rebrand the institution as the “Trump Kennedy Center” and again in March when it approved a closure set to begin around the Fourth of July.
“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,” Cooper wrote. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Cooper gave the administration 14 days to remove Trump’s name from the building’s facade, the website and official materials. He did not bar repair work from continuing and said the board could try again to close the venue if it followed the proper process.
In a Saturday morning post, Trump called Cooper “a Barack Hussein Obama Judge” and accused him of standing in the way of a “magnificent” rebuild that he said would have replaced rotting beams, decades-old HVAC equipment and damaged marble. The president also attacked Cooper’s wife, attorney Amy Jeffress, claiming she is “totally wired into the Left System” and represents “a Conflict of Interest” that should have forced Cooper to step aside.
“He has a total Conflict of Interest, and should be brought up on charges for not revealing these facts,” Trump wrote. “That is why The Kennedy Center will soon be closed, probably never to open again.”
Jeffress is a former federal prosecutor who served as a counselor to former Attorney General Eric Holder during the Obama administration. She represented the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and she signed on as former President Joe Biden’s personal attorney in 2025. She is currently a partner at Hecker Fink LLP.
Trump closed his post by tying the Kennedy Center ruling to other recent court losses, including a federal court decision against several of his tariffs, and vowed to “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!”
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump said his team would now work with Congress “to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”
