2026年6月19日 / 美国东部时间晚上9:45 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿讯——特朗普政府周五晚间告知一名联邦法官，肯尼迪中心仍在权衡未来数月是推出全部演出计划，还是仅提供有限的节目内容。目前美国政府正面临一项法院命令，要求该机构保持开放。
美国地区法官克里斯托弗·库珀此前在俄亥俄州民主党众议员乔伊斯·比蒂提起诉讼后，于上月阻止特朗普政府在2028年前关闭肯尼迪中心进行翻新工程。他同时还推翻了为该中心添加特朗普总统姓名的更名尝试。
库珀曾要求政府在周五前详细说明其建筑工程计划的进展情况、与翻新相关的董事会决议以及其他“相关”动态。该法官还表示，特朗普政府必须解释7月5日（原计划关闭起始日期）之后的公共开放计划以及 ongoing 节目、活动和运营安排。
2026年6月14日，美国华盛顿，一块防水布覆盖在约翰·F·肯尼迪表演艺术中心的外墙上。亚历克斯·弗罗莱夫斯基 / 法新社通过盖蒂图片社拍摄
在周五提交的法庭文件中，肯尼迪中心执行主任马特·弗洛卡表示，该中心董事会计划在7月中旬召开会议，从三个选项中做出选择：一是“全面关闭”，不举办任何公共活动，以便该组织完成维修工作；二是“部分关闭”，保留“部分公共开放和有限的节目内容”；三是“分阶段协调关闭”，保留更多节目。
司法部律师请求库珀给予更多时间来回应比蒂的诉讼，称肯尼迪中心仍在决定如何推进相关事宜。他们还提议，双方在肯尼迪中心下一次董事会会议结束两周后提交一份联合现状报告。
政府律师在文件中写道，该中心仍计划对建筑进行首都级别的维修。他们表示，库珀的命令“并未明确要求董事会重新安排此前已取消的节目，或寻求新的节目”，并指出库珀未必完全禁止肯尼迪中心为翻新工程而关闭。
在同一份周五晚间提交的文件中，比蒂的律师反驳了司法部的说法，指责政府官员“通过不作为来实施他们的关闭决定”，并试图“将肯尼迪中心变成一个毫无生气的空壳”。
这位议员的律师辩称，政府已经“掏空”了肯尼迪中心的节目内容，如今又未能采取“显而易见的措施”来恢复节目运营。他们举的一个例子是《疯狂剪切》——一部广受欢迎的互动戏剧，本月早些时候结束了在肯尼迪中心长达数十年的驻场演出，尽管该中心“本可以尝试确保该剧继续上演”。
“再次明确一下，原告并未要求法院挑选被告方呈现的节目内容，也未要求法院微观管理运营，”比蒂的律师写道，“不过，被告方必须采取行动，确保2026年7月5日能开展有意义的运营活动，以遵守初步禁令的明确条款，并且必须秉持善意行事。”
比蒂的律师请求库珀下令政府每周提交一份关于“为恢复节目所采取的具体措施”的最新情况报告。他们还建议双方开始讨论该诉讼的证据开示时间表。
除了该中心的节目安排，肯尼迪中心的名称在过去一周也引发了审查。根据库珀的命令，特朗普总统的姓名已于上周从肯尼迪中心的外墙上移除，此前联邦法院驳回了在法律程序继续期间允许其名称保留在建筑上的最后一刻请求。
特朗普政府在6月13日的一份法庭文件中证实，他们已取下印有总统姓名的标识牌，更新了肯尼迪中心官网以删除提及特朗普的内容，并撤回了包含联名的相关商标申请。总统姓名也已从电子邮件签名、通讯以及宣传册、新闻稿和合同等文件中移除。
不过，从周五拍摄的照片来看，建筑外墙上特朗普姓名所在区域仍被防水布遮盖，大部分建筑名称都被遮挡住了。
比蒂的法律团队周五指责肯尼迪中心保留防水布的做法。
“除了引发合规方面的担忧之外，故意破坏肯尼迪中心标志性的外墙以迎合被告方的虚荣心或安抚受损的自尊心，显然违反了受托责任，”他们写道。
对肯尼迪中心的这些修改，是为了响应库珀上月作出的一项裁决，该裁决阻止了该表演艺术中心的临时关闭，并下令将特朗普总统的姓名从其名称、实体和数字标识以及官方材料中移除。
库珀发现，肯尼迪中心董事会（大部分成员为政府官员和特朗普的盟友）在单方面以总统之名重新命名该机构时，越权行事。
这位法官还表示，当董事会批准特朗普将肯尼迪中心关闭两年进行翻新的决定时，该董事会“未能充分履行其对该中心的全部职责”。
库珀表示，该机构的计划维修工作可以继续进行，他并未完全排除肯尼迪中心未来关闭的可能性。相反，他表示董事会的任何决定都应在审慎地“独立权衡”其“对该中心的多重义务”之后作出。
特朗普对肯尼迪中心的关注始于他第二届政府就职后不久。总统用白宫顾问、政府官员家属、捐赠者和长期支持者替换了多名董事会成员。
随后，董事会一致选举特朗普担任新主席。该董事会在12月投票通过将该机构更名为“唐纳德·J·特朗普与约翰·F·肯尼迪纪念表演艺术中心”。
但法律学者表示，任何对该中心名称的修改都不能由董事会单方面作出，而是需要国会采取行动。库珀在裁决中同意这一观点，他写道：“国会赋予了肯尼迪中心这个名称，只有国会才能更改它。”
特朗普最初表示他将遵守库珀的裁决，上月末在Truth Social平台上发帖称，他将“与国会合作，将这个失败的机构交还给他们，以便他们决定如何处理”。但随着库珀要求从建筑上移除他姓名的最后期限临近，司法部向华盛顿联邦上诉法院提出请求，暂停地区法院的命令。
美国哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院的一个法官小组驳回了这一请求，为移除总统姓名扫清了道路。
Kennedy Center says it’s still weighing whether to carry out a “partial closure”
June 19, 2026 / 9:45 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — The Trump administration told a federal judge late Friday that the Kennedy Center is still weighing whether to offer a full slate of performances or more limited programming over the coming months, as the government grapples with a court order requiring the institution to stay open.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper last month blocked the Trump administration from closing the Kennedy Center until 2028 for renovations, following a lawsuit from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio. He also reversed an attempt to rename the center to add President Trump’s name.
Cooper had directed the administration to detail the status of plans for its construction project, board actions related to the renovations and other “pertinent” developments by Friday. The judge also said the Trump administration had to explain plans for public access and ongoing programming, activities and operations after July 5, the start date of its previously planned closure.
A tarp covers the facade of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2026. Alex WROBLEWSKI /AFP via Getty Images
In a filing on Friday, Kennedy Center Executive Director Matt Floca said the center’s board plans to meet in mid-July to decide between three options: a “full closure” with no public programs so the organization can complete repairs, a “partial closure” with “some continued public access and limited programming,” or a “coordinated series of phased closures” with more programming.
Attorneys for the Justice Department asked Cooper for more time to respond to Beatty, saying the Kennedy Center is still deciding how to proceed.They also suggested that both parties file a joint status report two weeks after the Kennedy Center’s next board meeting.
The government’s lawyers wrote that the center is still planning to carry out capital repairs on the building. They said Cooper’s order “did not affirmatively require the Board to reschedule programming that had previously been cancelled or to seek new programming,” and noted that Cooper did not necessarily block the center from closing for renovations altogether.
In the same Friday night filing, Beatty’s lawyers pushed back against the Justice Department, accusing government officials of “implementing their shutdown decision by inertia” and seeking to “turn the Kennedy Center into a lifeless husk.”
The government, the lawmaker’s attorneys argued, had “gutted” the Kennedy Center’s programming and is now failing to take “obvious steps” to restore it. One example they cited is “Shear Madness,” a popular interactive play that ended its decades-long run at the Kennedy Center earlier this month, even though the center “could have potentially attempted to ensure” it stuck around.
“To be clear, again, Plaintiff is not asking the Court to pick and choose what programming Defendants present, or to micromanage operations,” Beatty’s lawyers wrote. “Defendants must do something, however, to ensure there are meaningful operations come July 5, 2026, in order to comply with the plain terms of the preliminary injunction, and they must do so in good faith.”
Beatty’s lawyers asked Cooper to order the government to provide weekly updates about “the concrete steps taken to resume programming.” They also suggested the parties begin discussing a schedule for discovery in the lawsuit.
Beyond the center’s programming, the name of the Kennedy Center has drawn scrutiny over the last week. Mr. Trump’s name was removed from the facade of the Kennedy Center last week to comply with Cooper’s order, after federal courts rejected 11th-hour efforts to allow it to remain affixed to the building while legal proceedings continued.
The Trump administration confirmed in a court filing on June 13 that it had taken down signage bearing the president’s name, updated the Kennedy Center’s website to remove references to Mr. Trump, and had withdrawn relevant trademark applications that included the joint name. References to the president were also stripped from email signatures and communications, as well as papers like brochures, press releases and contracts.
Still, the bulk of the building’s name remained blocked from public view, as photos taken Friday show a tarp concealing the area of the facade where Mr. Trump’s name was.
Beatty’s legal team on Friday castigated the Kennedy Center for leaving the tarp up.
“In addition to raising concerns about compliance, willfully sabotaging Kennedy Center’s iconic façade to assuage Defendants’ vanity or massage broken egos is a clear breach of fiduciary duty,” they wrote.
The changes to the Kennedy Center came in response to a decision late last month from Cooper that blocked the performing arts center’s temporary closure and ordered Mr. Trump’s name to be removed from its title, physical and digital signage, and official materials.
Cooper found that the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, composed largely of administration officials and allies of Mr. Trump, overstepped its authority when it unilaterally renamed the institute after the president.
The judge also said that when the board ratified Mr. Trump’s decision to close the Kennedy Center for two years for renovations, it was “derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the center.”
Cooper said planned repair work on the institute can continue, and he did not foreclose the Kennedy Center’s closure in the future. Instead, he said any decision by the board should come after “independent balancing” of its “multiple obligations to the center in a prudent fashion.”
Mr. Trump’s focus on the Kennedy Center began shortly after he took office for his second administration. The president replaced several members of the board with White House advisers, family members of administration officials, donors and longtime supporters.
The board then unanimously elected Mr. Trump as its new chair. It voted to change the institution’s name to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December.
But legal scholars said any change to the center’s name could not be done unilaterally by the board and instead required congressional action. Cooper, in his decision, agreed, writing: “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Mr. Trump initially indicated he would adhere to Cooper’s decision, writing on Truth Social late last month that he would work “with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.” But as Cooper’s deadline for his name to be stripped from the building neared, the Justice Department asked the federal appeals court in Washington to pause the district court’s order.
A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the request, clearing the way for the president’s name to be taken down.