Trump dumps decaying Kennedy Center onto Congress after Obama-appointed judge blocks world-class renovation
OAN Staff Sophia Flores
3:43 PM – Friday, May 29, 2026
President Donald Trump blasted a “Barack Hussein Obama”- appointed judge on Truth Social following a federal ruling that halts the Kennedy Center’s vital structural renovations and mandates the removal of Trump’s name from the building.
Following a ruling by Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, President Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to slam the court for sabotaging the world-class restoration of the Kennedy Center.
The judge blocked the Trump administration’s planned July closure to repair what Trump exposed as the building’s “years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance,” halting its transformation into the finest facility of its kind.
“Judge Cooper was given a presentation by leading Building and Construction Experts as to how structurally dangerous the Building is, with rotting beams, parking areas that are subject to collapse, and various other Life and Safety problems, in addition to the fact that it also needs a MAJOR renovation, from an aesthetic standpoint, but he was not ‘swayed,’ and said he wants the Building to, incredibly, remain open and, therefore, dangerous,” Trump wrote. “Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself!”
Trump continued to fiercely condemn the judge’s order to strip his name from the building, pointing out that the center’s 36-member Board of Trustees had previously voted unanimously to rebrand the iconic D.C. venue as “The Trump Kennedy Center.”
“Additionally, Judge Cooper ruled that the 36 Member Board of Trustees, which unanimously voted to add the name ‘TRUMP’ onto the former Kennedy Center, making it The Trump Kennedy Center, did not have the right to do such an addition, and the name, ‘TRUMP,’ must be removed,” he continued.
President Trump also noted that he took immense personal pride in taking over the financially struggling venue, writing that he had looked forward to “making it into a Great and Prestigious WINNER for Washington, D.C., and indeed, the United States of America.”
He compared the halted project to his administration’s ongoing aesthetic and physical restoration of the nation’s capital. Trump highlighted the extensive “construction, renovations, and ‘fix ups’” overseen alongside the Department of the Interior to restore D.C.’s “Waterfalls, Fountains, Monuments, and other things of Beauty.”
According to the 47th president, those cleanup initiatives have successfully brought the city back to life “in a now SAFE AND SECURE, after Record Setting Crime, Washington, D.C., which is thriving like, perhaps, never before!”
Due to the new court order, Trump revealed that he is walking away from the project entirely, stating he won’t be involved if he isn’t free to do what he does best. He has officially ordered the U.S. Commerce Department to arrange a full transfer of the “failing institution” back to Congress — so lawmakers can handle the financial and physical mess themselves.
“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’”
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