The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted Tuesday to close the Washington landmark, marking the third such vote since February and coming within an hour of a federal judge blocking the board from adding President Donald Trump's name to the building. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said the closure would take effect "immediately" and announced he would withhold a planned $257 million renovation unless courts ruled in favor of placing his name on the institution. He also said the Department of Justice would seek an expedited appeal and vowed to take the matter to the Supreme Court if a lower court ruling went against him.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the written order blocking the name addition shortly before the board vote, ruling that a board resolution approving the inscription "Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump" violated both his earlier order and a statute enacted by Congress. "Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing," Cooper wrote. Despite the board's vote, the center cannot close without Cooper lifting a separate temporary block he imposed in May requiring the institution to remain open while litigation proceeds; a request to lift that block is expected by Friday.

The dispute stretches back to early 2025, when Trump replaced several board trustees in February and the reconstituted board moved to rename the institution. New lettering bearing Trump's full name was affixed to the center's front portico, and the board subsequently approved a resolution in August to rename the campus "President Donald J. Trump Plaza" if $100 million in private funds was raised. Those changes prompted cancellations by artists and a reported drop in ticket sales, with Congress having separately approved more than $250 million for long-planned renovations.

Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member who brought the legal challenge, accused Trump of a "breach of his fiduciary duty as a trustee" and said his attempted renaming had driven audiences and artists away from the center. Beatty told MSNBC that Trump had called into the board meeting and, upon learning she had prevailed in court, engaged in "name calling" in what she described as "the most unprofessional thing" she had ever witnessed. Her attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, said in a joint statement that the shutdown vote was an attempt to "hide the terrible mismanagement under its current leadership."

The outcome of the pending court proceedings will determine whether the center closes and whether the planned renovations move forward. Trump said he has raised $17 million in private funds to help keep the center financially solvent in the interim. The Kennedy Center was established by Congress as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, and any permanent renaming or structural changes to that designation would require congressional approval, according to the judge's ruling.