The president appointed himself to the chairman of the venue’s Board of Trustees in February 2025.
President Donald Trump wants to transfer all operations of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to Congress after a federal judge blocked a two-year closure of the venue for renovations.
“The Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for largescale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World, is not allowed to close for these renovations, which would not be possible to properly do without such a closure,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on May 29.
He accused Democrats of caring “more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center,” and therefore “we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”
Washington-based Judge Christopher R. Cooper issued an order on May 29, which temporarily halted the name change and stopped the center from being shut down for a two-year remodel.
“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 said.
Congress organized the center as a “bureau” within the Smithsonian Institution directed by a board of trustees, he said.
The board was given several duties, including “programming obligations,” “memorial obligations” honoring the legacy of Kennedy, and general maintenance obligations, the judge said.
To satisfy these obligations, Congress “empowered the Board to do the kinds of things that boards typically do: negotiate contracts, prepare budgets, employ personnel, solicit and accept gifts, transfer property, bargain with employees, procure insurance, and issue annual reports.”
The lawsuit’s claim that the center’s board violated its fiduciary duty in voting to close the center was “likely to succeed,” the judge said.
A fiduciary duty is a duty of loyalty, care, and good faith that one party owes to another in positions of trust.
Cooper ruled that the building needed to stay open during the planned construction, which would have started after July 4.
Trump said in his May 29 statement that the building needed to be closed for renovation because it had rotting beams and parking areas that were about to collapse.
“I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight,” Trump wrote.
“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.’”
Trump said the Department of Commerce will arrange a full transfer of operations, maintenance, and management to Congress.
The Epoch Times contacted the White House for additional information.
By Jacki Thrapp
