Crews began removing President Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center’s facade early Saturday morning after a federal judge denied a last-minute legal bid to delay the court-ordered removal. The work started around 3 a.m., several hours after the performing arts venue missed a Friday deadline to comply with the judge’s ruling.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the initial order on May 29, 2026, directing the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from the building and all official materials within 14 days. Cooper ruled that the decision by the center’s board of trustees to rename the venue was illegal under federal law.
The judge based his ruling on a 1964 act of Congress that established the center as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote in his decision. Congress designated the center as “a living memorial” to the assassinated president when it passed the legislation two months after Kennedy’s death.
Trump’s name was added to the building in December 2025 after the Kennedy Center board voted to rename the facility. Workers installed the signage the day after the board’s vote, despite no congressional approval for the change. The 18 letters spelling “The Donald J. Trump and” remained on the facade for 176 days before removal began.
On Friday, June 12, both the district court and an appeals court rejected emergency motions filed by the Kennedy Center to pause the removal. Judge Cooper ruled at 1 p.m. that the center’s lawyers failed to show they were likely to win an appeal or that the center would suffer irreparable harm. Hours later, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a second attempt to block the removal.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio trustee of the Kennedy Center, brought the lawsuit challenging the renaming. Beatty had sued after she was muted during a virtual board meeting when she attempted to voice opposition to the name change. A crowd of more than 100 supporters gathered outside the Kennedy Center on Friday to watch the legal proceedings unfold, with demonstrators erupting in cheers when the appeals court denied the stay.
The Kennedy Center’s board initially signaled compliance with Cooper’s ruling, with a June 4 memo directing staff to remove Trump’s name from email signatures, letterheads, and website pages. The center removed his name from its website on June 8. However, the board later voted to challenge the ruling, seeking to pause the removal of the exterior sign while pursuing an appeal.
The center cited storms as the reason it missed the Friday midnight deadline, filing a request around midnight to extend the deadline to noon Saturday. Crews had erected scaffolding next to the building to facilitate the work, and the removal continued into Saturday morning as workers carefully took down each letter.
Sources
- The Washington Post — detailed account of the removal process, court rulings, and legal proceedings on June 12-13, 2026
- The New York Times — reporting on the judge’s May 29 ruling and the court-ordered deadline
- NPR — coverage of crews beginning the removal work
- BBC — reporting on Judge Cooper’s ruling that the name was illegally added and only Congress can rename the center
- The Guardian — coverage of the court’s denial of the emergency appeal
- USA Today — reporting on the predawn removal operation
