US Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name from Kennedy Center

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said his administration will transfer control of the Kennedy Centre to Congress, after a judge ordered the removal of Trump's name from the iconic Washington venue and blocked his plans to close it for renovations.

Trump said on social media that he instructed the US Commerce Department to "make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution" and give lawmakers responsibility over its operation, maintenance, and management.

It was not immediately clear how Trump's directive could be carried out. The Kennedy Centre was created by Congress in 1958 and is run by a board of trustees that the president has packed with allies in his second term.

Trump's announcement came after a judge on Friday ruled that the performing arts Centre, which Trump renamed the "Trump Kennedy Centre," cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.

US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the Trump administration to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and to eliminate any references to a "Trump Kennedy Centre" from official materials within 14 days.

"The Kennedy Centre's organic statute makes crystal clear that the Centre 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 Centre its name, and only Congress can change it."

Cooper's order also stopped the Trump administration’s planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Centre for major renovations, though the judge said "sorely needed" repairs to the aging building could move forward.

The judge said his decision "does not purport to dictate how the Centre should be run, nor does it prescribe any particular plan for the institution — construction, closure, or otherwise — moving forward."

In a Friday post on Truth Social, Trump said large-scale renovations set to begin next month would be impossible without a closure and that Cooper's order to keep the Centre open would be dangerous.

"I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight," Trump said.

Cooper ruled in a lawsuit brought by Ohio Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty, a member of the Kennedy Centre's board by virtue of her position in Congress. Beatty said in a statement after the ruling that the "Kennedy Centre is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump."

Push to remake Washington

Trump's plan to renovate the Centre 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 a lawsuit seeking to block it.

Beatty sued the Trump administration in December, calling the renaming of the building "a flagrant violation of the rule of law" that "flies in the face of our constitutional order.”

Her lawyers in a statement applauded Cooper's decision. "This is a powerful blow against the Trump administration’s corruption,” attorneys Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky said.

The board could still close the Kennedy Centre, Cooper wrote, "should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Centre in a prudent fashion."

The Kennedy Centre opened in 1971 as a living memorial to the late President John F Kennedy.