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In the early hours of this Saturday, workers began to remove the name of President Donald Trump from the façade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., just hours after the deadline set by a federal court to eliminate any reference to Trump from the iconic cultural venue had passed.
The operation occurred following a day of legal tension. On Friday, federal judge Christopher Cooper denied a request from the Kennedy Center to pause the enforcement of his ruling, and an appeal filed that same night was also dismissed, according to a report by the American public broadcaster NPR.
Shortly after midnight, the institution requested an extension until noon on Saturday, citing that thunderstorms had caused delays, and assured the court that the removal work was in progress and would be completed "in the early hours of the morning."
On Friday, scaffolding was installed around the section of the façade where the name Trump appears. By early morning, workers covered the scaffolding with tarps and began dismantling the letters. They left the site around 3:30 a.m., although the tarps remained in place, making it impossible to confirm whether all the letters had been removed.
Dozens of people gathered for hours in the square in front of the building, taking photographs and chanting "remove him." Democratic Representative from Ohio Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the board that filed the lawsuit to overturn the name change, was seen in the square in the moments leading up to the removal.
Judge Cooper had ruled on May 29 that only Congress has the authority to change the name of the facility, which was established by federal law in honor of President John F. Kennedy, and that the board acted illegally by adding Trump's name without that approval. The ruling also blocked plans to close the center for a major two-year renovation scheduled to begin in July.
The management of the Kennedy Center argued in its appeal that the renovation was urgent due to potentially fatal structural damage. “The district court does not allow us to close to properly repair the building, including potentially deadly structural damage such as rusted beams and ceilings in the parking garage, seriously at risk of collapsing on people. Total collapse!” stated the appeal document.
The name of Trump was physically added to the facade on December 20, 2025, renaming the venue as "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts." Two days later, Beatty filed his lawsuit.
The Kennedy Center had already begun to partially comply with the ruling before the physical removal: a memo from June 4 instructed staff to use only the official name in emails and documents, the website removed Trump's name, and communications for the Mark Twain Prize ceremony on June 28 no longer included it.
The legal battle for control of the Kennedy Center is set against a backdrop of unprecedented changes that Trump initiated regarding the institution since the beginning of his second term, when he dismissed half of the board, installed his own appointees, and was elected president of the council, which triggered a wave of artist cancellations and widespread public controversy.
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