A federal judge has delivered a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump’s attempt to reshape one of America’s most iconic cultural institutions, ruling that his administration illegally added his name to the Kennedy Center and improperly moved to shut it down for a sweeping renovation.
US District Judge Christopher Cooper halted the administration’s plan to close the venue for two years beginning in July, calling the Kennedy Center board’s March 16 vote “ill‑informed and seemingly preordained.” Cooper said the trustees failed to consider their legal obligations before approving the shutdown, effectively freezing the project in its tracks.
The ruling marks the latest legal setback for Trump’s efforts to leave a personal imprint on Washington’s cultural landscape. In a fiery response posted on Truth Social, Trump said he was abandoning the renovation entirely and returning control of the institution to Congress. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else… I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” he wrote.
The administration had announced plans for a major overhaul of the Kennedy Center, a project expected to take roughly two years. But with the judge’s ruling, those plans are now indefinitely paused and Trump’s ambitions for a legacy‑defining renovation appear to have evaporated.
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