The Justice Department told a federal appeals court on Monday that the Kennedy Center risks becoming a hollowed-out shell of an institution unless President Donald Trump’s name is permitted somewhere on the building.
The fight over renaming and rebuilding the performing arts complex hit a new peak earlier this month. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, issued an order enforcing a months-old injunction that flatly bars the center’s board from putting Trump’s name anywhere on the property.
Now the administration is arguing that ruling needs to be reversed, warning that without it the center will crumble both literally and financially.
“The Kennedy Center is in a state of collapse both financially and physically,” the DOJ wrote to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “The building has become dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit. As a result, it is fundamentally unsafe to employees and patrons alike. And the Center’s finances are equally in disrepair.”
According to the government’s account, the venue has been hemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars annually for decades and is headed toward losses exceeding $100 million a year going forward.
“In short, both physically and financially, the Kennedy Center is in critical condition,” the 71-page brief states. “To bring this sick and poorly run facility back to health will require time, energy, talent, and large amounts of money.”
That’s where Trump fits in, according to the filing.
“Just this month, the Kennedy Center was only able to pay its bills thanks to 17 million dollars raised by President Trump that were infused into the Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat,” the brief states.
The filing goes on to detail what it describes as Trump’s contributions to the center since taking office in 2025, saying he secured $258 million in congressional funding for capital restoration and built a new donor network to finance an endowment. It credits the administration with developing plans to rescue the building from what it calls a catastrophic state and turn it into what the brief terms a magnificent palace for the future — a job the brief says Trump is uniquely suited for given his background in real estate and construction, combined with the stature of his office. The work, the filing adds, will continue for years.
“Trump, and others in the Administration, will have to work very diligently for years to come to have the Center funded,” the brief adds.
But the government argues that kind of financial support won’t keep flowing unless Trump gets formal recognition on the site.
“[T]he funds are fast being expended, and without the Trump Administration, the accounts will dry up and Center will continue its deterioration into an unsafe structure that will eventually collapse, with a determination to follow on how to proceed, and what to do with the site,” the brief states. “That is not in the public interest.”
The initial injunction against putting Trump’s name on the center came from the district court in May.
The following month, the Trump-appointed board reconvened and approved a series of scaled-back proposals for signage bearing Trump’s name — including phrases like “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump” and “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” on the building’s exterior, along with renaming the grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
Judge Cooper rejected those scaled-back measures too, in a Sept. 15 ruling.
The government contends the district court got the analysis backward.
“Plaintiff, a partisan bent on reflexively opposing President Trump at every turn, faces only abstract harms,” the brief argues. “On the other hand, the district court’s orders preventing the Board from appropriately recognizing President Trump will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to cease. There will simply not be the expertise or funding necessary to rebuild and renovate this decimated structure.”
Throughout the filing, the DOJ warns of dire consequences if Trump isn’t recognized on the grounds soon.
“In short, without appropriate recognition, the Kennedy Center will be back where it was at the beginning—a financially insolvent facility and a decrepit, dilapidated, crumbling building, that is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and that continues to race toward physical and financial ruin,” the brief concludes. “The stakes are existential.”
