Workers erect scaffolding at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, June 12, 2026.
Andrew Leyden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge on Friday rejected a last-minute bid to block his order directing President Donald Trump’s name to be removed from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration had asked that Judge Christopher Cooper stay his May 29 ruling in U.S. District Court in D.C. pending a new appeal of that decision.
Cooper’s rejection came on the day of the deadline of his order that Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center, the performing arts landmark named after the late President John Kennedy.
“Defendants have not carried their burden to establish that a stay of the Court’s … permanent injunction concerning the Kennedy Center’s renaming is warranted pending an appeal of the underlying ruling to the D.C. Circuit,” Cooper wrote in his order.
“Most notably, for the detailed reasons laid out in the Court’s ruling, Defendants have not ‘made a strong showing that [they] are likely to succeed on the merits,’ ” the judge wrote.
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