A file image of the John F. Kennedy Centre. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday (September 15, 2026) to keep the Kennedy Centre closed for good after a judge ruled his name cannot be added to the famed arts institution’s facade.
Mr. Trump said his hand-picked board voted “almost unanimously” to shut the venue immediately for emergency renovations, just a few hours after the federal judge’s decision.
But he warned the “very large and complex” repairs at the building in Washington cannot begin until a higher court rules on whether the centre can be renamed after himself.
“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social network.
The Kennedy Centre said in a statement to AFP that the board’s decision “reflects sound judgment and a clear prioritisation of safety above all else.”
Shortly after beginning his second term, Republican Trump installed himself as chairman of the centre, which is named in honour of late president John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who championed civil rights before he was assassinated in 1963.
The board voted in December to call it the “Trump-Kennedy” Center and installed signage with his name on it.
U.S. federal judge Christopher Cooper previously ordered Mr. Trump’s name removed from the exterior and overturned the board’s decision to rename the institution.
Mr. Cooper ruled on Tuesday (September 15, 2026) that Mr. Trump’s name cannot be added back, rebuking the centre for trying to circumvent his earlier order.
“Simply put,” wrote Mr. Cooper in his decision, the board “cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Centre without Congress’s blessing.”
Demolition threat
Mr. Trump himself called into the board meeting and berated a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the board and filed the lawsuit that blocked its renaming, CNN reported.
The Kennedy Centre takeover is one of several projects aimed at stamping Mr. Trump’s brand on the U.S. capital, including a triumphal arch and a half-billion dollar ballroom at the White House.
Workers removed Mr. Trump’s name from the building in June, but scaffolding and tarps have remained ever since.
Last month, the board moved forward with a plan to add a new signage on the building that would read “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump.”
Cooper on Tuesday (September 15, 2026) said that plan was in violation of his previous ruling.
Mr. Trump and his chosen leaders of the Kennedy Centre have argued that its main building, which was constructed in the 1960s, is in a state of dangerous disrepair.
As evidence of the safety problems, the president pointed to a recent incident in which a piece of the ceiling tumbled to the ground following a storm.
“If the Building were open, innocent people would have been killed,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social before the judge’s ruling.
Last month, as part of court proceedings, the Mr. Trump administration warned that the centre may need to be demolished if its plans to renovate the building were blocked.
A host of artists cancelled concerts at the venue in response to Mr. Trump’s takeover, while U.S. media have reported that Kennedy Center ticket sales have plummeted.
Published – September 16, 2026 09:27 am IST
