In a long-winded social media rant, President Donald Trump said he’s no longer interested in taking control of the Kennedy Center after a judge ruled Friday that he can’t slap his name on it.

“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,’” Trump wrote after Judge Christopher Cooper of the Federal District Court in Washington issued his ruling.

“Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of,” he continued.

Friday’s ruling blocks a December decision by the performing arts center’s Board of Trustees, filled with Trump appointees, to rename it The Trump Kennedy Center.

Just weeks after taking office, Trump fired the center’s board chair and removed several trustees before naming himself board chair. In May 2025, the new board voted to block ex officio members from voting.

In March, Trump announced that the center would shutter for two years, beginning in July, to undergo large-scale renovations.

Now, he wrote Friday, his administration is “working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.”

Upon taking over the center, Trump criticized it for being “woke” and vowed to put an end to drag show performances as well as “other anti-American propaganda.”

In response, several artists canceled their performances at the center, including Issa Rae, Rhiannon Giddens and the band Low Cut Connie.

Popular musicals “Hamilton” and “Les Miserables” also canceled tour dates at the center.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, filed a lawsuit in December 2025 to block the board’s decision to rename the center and close it for two years.

“Let’s be clear: remodeling the premises will not restore the Kennedy Center to what it was. A return to artistic independence will,” she said in a statement earlier this year. “America’s artists are rejecting this attempted takeover, and the administration knows it.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also characterized Trump’s move to overhaul the center without Congressional approval as illegal.

“The Kennedy Center Board has no authority to actually rename the Kennedy Center in the absence of legislative action,” he told reporters.

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