Who is Christopher Cooper, the judge who blocked Trump’s plans for the Kennedy Center?

Published May 29, 2026 7:58pm ET



U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of Washington, D.C., delivered a blow on Friday to President Donald Trump‘s planned two-year renovation for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, previously set to commence on July 5, and ordered the president’s name to be removed from the arts center.

Judge Cooper was nominated to the bench in 2014 by then-President Barack Obama and subsequently confirmed by the Senate in a unanimous vote. Trump grouped Cooper among the “Radical Left Democrats” in a Truth Social post, due to his association with Obama.

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