Workers removed President Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center early Saturday morning, completing the court-ordered removal hours after a Friday midnight deadline passed. The removal follows a federal judge’s May 29 ruling that Trump’s name was illegally added to the iconic Washington performing arts venue and must be taken down.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from the building’s facade and all official materials within two weeks. The deadline was Friday, June 12, but the Kennedy Center missed it, prompting crews to begin work around 1:20 a.m. Saturday under tarps to shield the work from public view.
In his 94-page ruling, Judge Cooper found that the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, handpicked by Trump, “overstepped its statutory bounds” by unilaterally adding Trump’s name to the center. Cooper wrote that Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it. “May the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorization? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no,” he stated.
Trump’s name was added to the building in December 2025, less than a day after the board voted to rename the facility the “Trump Kennedy Center.” The board also voted in March to close the center for major renovations, but Cooper blocked that closure as well, ruling the decision was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.”
The Kennedy Center board filed an emergency appeal Thursday seeking to pause Cooper’s order, and the Trump administration requested a 12-hour extension Friday as the deadline approached. Both requests were denied. A federal appeals court rejected a last-ditch effort by the Kennedy Center’s leadership to keep Trump’s name on the building.
Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said Friday the institution was “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.” She noted that the center has $257 million secured by Trump and approved by Congress for restoration work.
Trump responded to Cooper’s initial May 29 ruling by saying on Truth Social that he was backing away from his proposed renovation and returning control of the arts institution to Congress. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,'” Trump wrote. He also said the judge “should be ashamed of himself.”
The removal of Trump’s name marks another legal setback for Trump’s efforts to leave his personal mark on Washington’s landscape. The case was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, along with cultural and historic preservation organizations that worried the president and his board allies would flout preservation rules designed to maintain the building’s historic fabric.
Beatty called the court decision a win for the Kennedy Center and the performing arts. “Now hopefully people can come back to work, we can continue to be the Kennedy Center that we were intended to be,” she told the Associated Press.
Sources
- PBS News — Judge Cooper’s May 29 ruling that Trump’s name was illegally added, ordered removal within two weeks, and blocked the board’s authority to rename the center without Congress
- NPR — Workers began removing Trump’s name early June 13 after the Friday deadline was missed; Trump’s name was added in December 2025
- Reuters — Removal work began around 1:20 a.m. after missed deadline; federal judge declined the DOJ’s request to pause the order
- The New York Times — Board voted in December to rename the center; Trump responded by saying he would transfer control to Congress
- NBC News — Kennedy Center official confirmed Trump’s name was removed from building and website
- Axios — Judge denied Trump’s request to pause the removal order
