Lutnick stumps for Trump’s Kennedy Center rebrand outside key court hearing
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made an unexpected appearance outside a courthouse on Thursday, raising a new theory for how President Donald Trump could keep his name atop the Kennedy Center ahead of a key hearing over the disputed rebranding. Lutnick said the building would retain its congressionally designated name, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center […]
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made an unexpected appearance outside a courthouse on Thursday, raising a new theory for how President Donald Trump could keep his name atop the Kennedy Center ahead of a key hearing over the disputed rebranding.
Lutnick said the building would retain its congressionally designated name, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, while adding language crediting Trump for planned repairs, according to multiple videos taken outside Washington D.C.’s E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse.
” data-large-file=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing.webp” src=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing.webp” alt=”The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” class=”wp-image-4688197″ srcset=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing-1.webp 1024w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing-1.webp?resize=300,200 300w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing-1.webp?resize=768,512 768w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing-1.webp?resize=150,100 150w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lutnick-stumps-for-trumps-kennedy-center-rebrand-outside-key-court-hearing-1.webp?resize=696,464 696w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
“Underneath the name of the building, which will remain the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, ‘Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump,’” Lutnick told reporters.
The proposal is awaiting review by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ruled in June that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” The center’s board, chaired by Trump, later voted to place the new wording on the building’s facade and attach Trump’s name to its plaza.
At Thursday’s hearing, attorney Nathaniel Zelinsky, representing Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), argued the board was attempting to evade Cooper’s order. Beatty, a former Kennedy Center board member, has consistently opposed adding Trump’s name.
“They read your opinion and said, ‘Aha, here’s a way around it,’” Zelinsky argued, according to Meidas Touch reporter Scott MacFarlane’s account of the hearing. He accused the board of “slapping President Trump’s name back on” the building in “outright defiance” of the court.
A Kennedy Center attorney countered that “there is no renaming here,” describing the proposed inscription as recognition that the building was restored and renovated by Trump.
Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, cut off an attempt to discuss the center’s condition, calling it a “non sequitur” and returning to whether his earlier order had been violated.
Before Thursday’s hearing, the Kennedy Center’s name had already been at the center of a monthslong legal battle. On Dec. 18, the Trump-aligned board voted to rename the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” Workers installed new lettering on its marble facade the following day, identifying it as the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Beatty sued on Dec. 22, arguing that the board lacked the power to rename a memorial established by Congress. Cooper agreed on May 29, ruling that only Congress could change the center’s name and ordering Trump’s name removed from the facade, website, and official materials.
Outside the court on Wednesday, Lutnick described the facility as dangerous and cited concrete falling from the garage ceiling. He said renovations would take two years and cost about $257 million, while preserving the REACH, a recent campus expansion that earlier proposals had threatened to close.
The administration warned in a filing this week that the center could require demolition without its proposed construction plan. Justice Department lawyers also argued Monday that excluding Trump’s name could drive away donors, halt contributions, and jeopardize structural repairs.
Zelinsky called the demolition warning “breathtaking” and “a threat.”
Outside the courthouse, Lutnick maintained that Trump was undertaking the project for the public, not himself, and said that only the president could raise the $500 million he said was needed for the broader renovation effort.
The new argument from the commerce secretary sharpened the focus on an already contentious fight over whether adding a renovation credit and renaming the plaza would effectively accomplish what Cooper previously ruled the board lacked authority to do under the law.
The hearing included an indefinite recess due to technical problems before resuming. Cooper was not expected to issue a definitive ruling Thursday.
