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A three-judge panel has rejected the Kennedy Center's request to put Donald Trump's name back on the institution's white marble facade while an appeal against its removal is ongoing

A three-judge panel has ruled that Donald Trump's name cannot be put back on the white marble facade of the Kennedy Center while an appeal against its removal is ongoing.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a request from the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, chaired by Trump, to keep the president's name on the building while it challenges a ruling ordering its removal.

The institution was renamed The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts earlier this year, but US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that the move was illegal. He said only Congress has the authority to rename the centre and ordered that Trump's name be removed from the building's facade and signage.

The Trump administration complied after failing to block the ruling, and the changes were carried out last month.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the panel of judges wrote that the board's request had "failed to show how they will be irreparably injured" if Trump’s name remained off the building while the appeal was ongoing.

The board had argued that the removal "threatens to impede" fundraising efforts, but the judges said the claim was not supported by "specific facts or evidence".

When Trump returned to office in 2025, he replaced the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, whose members then named him chairman.

The lawsuit challenging the renaming was filed in December last year by Rep Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex-officio trustee of the John F Kennedy Center.

Beatty said on Wednesday: "Today’s ruling again affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful."

She added: "His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people. Now it is time for the Trump administration to accept this, comply with the law, and take the tarps down."

Last month, onlookers gathered outside the Kennedy Center hoping to witness the dramatic moment when the signage was removed from the building's facade, but the work was carried out behind a tarp covering the scaffolding. The tarp remains in place, keeping the changes hidden from public view.