A federal appeals court denied Trump's request to restore his name to the Kennedy Center during his appeal

A federal appeals court on Wednesday denied the Trump administration's request to put President Trump's name back on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts while it appeals a lower court order that required the name be removed.

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit leaves the removal order in force during the appeal. Trump's name has already come off the building. The signage on the front has been covered by a tarp and scaffolding since June 13, and the center's executive director told the court last month that the name was removed.

What the panel ruled

The panel, made up of Judges Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Gregory Katsas, said the administration had not shown it would be irreparably injured without the name attached. Because the name has already come down, the judges wrote, "a stay would not avert those harms."

The administration had also argued that removing the name would threaten future fundraising and contribute to "the financial decline of the Center." The judges rejected that argument, writing that the administration "failed to support this assertion with any specific facts or evidence" and had offered "only the conclusory assertions of the Kennedy Center's Executive Director that were made in a factually unsupported declaration." Millett and Wilkins were appointed by President Obama; Katsas was appointed by Trump.

How the case got here

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, sued in December 2025 after the board voted to add Trump's name to the building alongside John F. Kennedy's. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found the board's process was improper and set a June 12 deadline for the name to be removed from the building and from the center's digital materials. The appeals court on Wednesday declined to pause that order.

In a statement Wednesday, Beatty said the decision "again affirms that this administration's efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful," added that the name "no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people," and called on the administration to "comply with the law, and take the tarps down." In its filings, the administration said removing the name, both on the building and in digital materials, would cost time and money already spent.

What happens next

The stay denial does not end the case. It means Trump's name stays off the building while the appeal continues. Cooper has ordered the center to file a status report on its operations and programming before the end of July. The center's July calendar lists a limited slate, including free outdoor movie screenings, workshops for children, and five free performances on its Millennium Stage. The center has in the past staged more than 2,000 events a year.