The Kennedy Center has stripped Trump branding from its website after a federal judge ruled that the venue cannot bear President Donald Trump’s name. The change appeared on the center’s home page and in its news email to members on Monday.
The timing matters because the site now reflects a court order that landed last month, just as the center disclosed the guest list for Bill Maher’s Mark Twain Award ceremony. Maher, who is scheduled to receive the 27th Twain Award for American Humor on June 28, will be joined by speakers including John Mellencamp, Jay Leno and Whitney Cummings, with Louis C.K. also expected to attend.
The dispute reaches back to 1964, when Congress named the venue for President John F. Kennedy. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said then that the Kennedy Center is to be named for President Kennedy and cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the board’s unilateral say-so. In the judge’s words, Congress gave the center its name, and only Congress can change it.
That ruling cut against an effort pushed by Trump allies on the center’s board, after Trump ousted the leadership of the Kennedy Center and filled the trustees with supporters during his involvement with the institution. The venue had been identified on its website as the Trump Kennedy Center before the branding was removed, a public sign of how far the fight over the institution’s identity had gone.
There is still an open question at the center of the case: whether the Kennedy Center will formally appeal. A spokesperson had suggested the venue might challenge the ruling, but the center later received an email from its general counsel last week laying out steps for cooperation, including the removal of Trump’s name. That shift points to compliance for now, even as the legal fight is not finished.
The naming dispute has already carried cultural consequences. Several performers, including Issa Rae, Bela Fleck and Renée Fleming, cancelled planned appearances at the Kennedy Center after the changes there. For now, the website reset is the clearest sign that the center is treating Judge Cooper’s ruling as binding, not symbolic.
