Trump Lashes Out After Judge Orders Removal of His Name from Kennedy Center

A US judge has ordered the removal of Donald Trump‘s name from the title of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, triggering a defiant response from the US President on social media.

The ruling follows a period of significant controversy for the venue, which has faced boycotts and cancellations from numerous artists since the board voted to rename the institution the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ last December.

On Friday (May 29), a federal judge ruled that the Washington DC venue cannot be renamed without explicit congressional approval. Consequently, the institution must remove Trump’s name from its title, facade, and all official signage within 14 days.

According to BBC News, a spokesperson for the centre confirmed plans to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, Trump took to Truth Social to express his frustration, stating he would be working with Congress to transfer the institution back to their oversight.

Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND’,

The venue, which opened in 1971 as a tribute to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, will now revert to its original name: the ‘John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts’.

District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama-era appointee, noted in his ruling: “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. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

Trump responded to the ruling by claiming that “Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of.”

The controversy has had a tangible impact on the venue’s operations. Last year, Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz joined a growing list of artists boycotting the centre, arguing it no longer represented the “apolitical place for free artistic expression” it was founded to be. Additionally, the venue has faced public mockery, including from South Park writer Toby Morton, who purchased the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ domain names to troll the administration.

This legal setback arrives as Trump faces further pushback regarding his ‘Freedom 250’ celebration at the Great American State Fair. Despite an initial lineup featuring artists such as Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida, and Bret Michaels, the event has seen a wave of cancellations from performers protesting the President’s recent actions.