President Donald Trump’s name was officially taken off the Kennedy Center after a federal judge ruled the president cannot simply place his name on the building. Workers rushed to remove the lettering by an 11:59 p.m. deadline, prompting a short Justice Depart
On Saturday night, workers moved quickly beneath scaffolding wrapped around the Kennedy Center, taking down the lettering bearing President Donald Trump’s name. It was a scramble with a deadline: 11:59 p.m.
The Justice Department later received a 12-hour extension after it said thunderstorms in the D.C. area caused delays. Still, the message landed before the clock ran out—Trump’s name was officially removed.
At the center of the fight was a legal question about naming power. In her decision. Judge Cooper wrote that the Kennedy Center’s organic statute “makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy. and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so.” Cooper added: “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name. and only Congress can change it.”.
Cooper also went further than just Trump’s name. She blocked the two-year closure of the Kennedy Center that a Trump-installed board voted to close down for renovations in December.
Trump responded the way he often does when a court stops him: angrily and publicly. He posted on Truth Social in May. writing. “Can you imagine?” In the same post. Trump attacked the judge. calling Christopher Cooper “a Barack Hussein Obama Judge. ” and accused the ruling of halting what he described as a “magnificent structural and aesthetic rebuilding.” He said materials—“marble. furniture. steel. air conditioning. heating. and so much else”—had been ordered or were about to be ordered. and he argued that the end result would be a structure “that would no longer be in a potential state of collapse. rusted. rotted. and rat and bug infested.”.
The name removal arrives at a flashpoint moment for Trump personally and politically. It is one day before his 80th birthday, when he plans to host an outdoor UFC event on the White House South Lawn.
For Sunday in Washington, the forecast points toward a tough day for the spectacle: hot, humid conditions, buggy weather, and scattered thunderstorms that could disrupt plans for Trump’s $60 million birthday bash.
The timing is brutal in its own way—because even as the court order played out in public at one of the nation’s cultural landmarks, Trump’s birthday plans were still pushing forward on the other side of the city, with the weather threatening to complicate everything.
Donald Trump Kennedy Center Christopher Cooper Truth Social UFC event White House South Lawn federal judge Congress Justice Department scaffolding naming dispute
So they’re removing his name but keeping his whole ego? lol
Wait I thought Kennedy Center is literally named after Kennedy already, so why would they even put Trump on there in the first place? Sounds like some rich people drama.
This Cooper judge is wild… like she’s saying only Congress can change it which I get, but also they’re talking about thunderstorms and scaffolding like that’s the real story? Anyway sounds like Trump got blocked again and is mad (shocking).
Not gonna lie the timeline thing is funny, 11:59 pm last minute and then 12 hours extension bc of storms… but meanwhile he’s doing that UFC birthday thing in the heat? if it rains or bugs show up, everyone will blame the judge too probably. Also I swear I read somewhere the board already closed it so I don’t even know what’s going on anymore.