Workers began removing President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center’s facade on Saturday morning after a federal judge ruled the renaming unlawful and refused to extend the deinstallation deadline. The action follows a court battle launched last Decem
Around 3 a.m. ET on Saturday. scaffolding went up at the Kennedy Center in Washington. DC. and workers started the work of physically removing President Donald Trump’s name from the building’s facade. A curtain was added to obstruct any clear view of the removal process. even as supporters later gathered and cheered as the lettering came down.
The burst of nighttime labor was the final visible step in a legal fight that began last December. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty (Ohio)—an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board—filed suit seeking to remove Trump’s name from the 55-year-old institution.
On Friday, the Kennedy Center tried one last time to delay the court-ordered timeline. A federal judge denied a last-minute request by the Kennedy Center to extend the deadline for deinstallation. By evening. the crowd outside had turned the work into a kind of public moment: cheers rose as workers prepared to start removing the lettering that had been installed after Trump ousted the institution’s board of trustees and packed the board with Trump allies last year.
The legal order being carried out is tied to the institution’s most visible tribute. In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name. and only Congress can change it.” He also held that the memorial to John F. Kennedy—an assassinated president—must stay unchanged.
As the removal began, a tarp covered the newly removed name on the facade, leaving no doubt that the decision had real-world consequences, not just legal ones. The signage being stripped includes the lettering “The Donald J. Trump and.”
For the Trump administration, the outcome is a sharp defeat. For arts advocates—and for some Kennedy family members who were furious at the rebranding—it lands as vindication. The judge’s order did not just address naming. He also blocked the Kennedy Center’s two-year closure tied to renovations proposed by the Trump-installed board. while leaving open the possibility the board could revisit the closure through proper procedures.
In writing that decision, Cooper said the board “does not have leeway to disregard its obligations to present programming and maintain a presidential memorial site.”
Taken together. the filings. the ruling in May. and the denial on Friday of any deadline extension pushed the dispute from the courtroom to the streets outside the Kennedy Center—where. by early Saturday. workers were already removing the last part of the rebranding that the judge said the institution had no authority to make.
Kennedy Center Donald Trump Joyce Beatty Christopher Cooper federal judge deinstallation deadline presidential memorial site board of trustees Washington DC
So they just… scrape his name off at 3am? Seems like more politics dressed up as art.
I’m confused, didn’t they already change it like months ago? And now they’re covering it with a curtain so nobody can see lol.
Wait, the judge said Congress gave it the name so only Congress can change it… but aren’t boards like literally in charge? Sounds like they’re just mad he packed the board with supporters, and the court is being used as a weapon.
Honestly this is why nobody trusts the system. If it’s really about honoring JFK and keeping the memorial, why would they even put “The Donald J. Trump and” on there in the first place? Also I saw someone say the closure got blocked too which like… wow, arts getting held hostage again. Either way workers out there removing it while people cheer like it’s a sports game.