The Kennedy Center has fully removed President Donald Trump's name from its building, following a court order to reverse the name change. Executive Director Matt Floca confirmed the completion in court documents filed Saturday, according to Antigua News Room.
Crews placed a tarp over the building's facade on Friday, obscuring the progress of the removal from public view. The covering remained in place Saturday even after Trump's name was reported to have been taken down.
A federal judge had granted the Kennedy Center additional time to comply, extending the deadline to noon ET Saturday after the organization missed an earlier 11:59 p.m. Friday cutoff. Justice Department attorneys, representing the center, cited severe thunderstorms in the Washington area as the cause of delays that prompted the 12-hour extension.
Workers began removing Trump's name from an exterior wall of the center in the early hours of Saturday morning, footage from a CNN crew showed. A small crowd gathered to watch, with some stopping to take photographs. One onlooker took a selfie in front of the tarp-covered building with fingers crossed.
"I just wanted to see (Trump's) name gone," JoAnn Jones told CNN. "When a person wants to put their name on a building that you had nothing to do with, you did no work, you just, you don't deserve it."
Scaffolding assembly had begun Friday afternoon, but work paused as thunderstorms rolled in. A crowd of protesters, some arriving with bottles of champagne, observed throughout, chanting "Take it down" and at one point calling the workers "heroes." Shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday, workers began draping a covering around the scaffolding, drawing chants of "Shame!" from those gathered. A little after 3 a.m., crews appeared to begin removing the individual letters.
On Friday, an appeals court rejected a last-minute bid by the center to freeze the ruling by US District Judge Christopher Cooper that had imposed the original deadline. The court did not explain its reasoning in a brief, unsigned ruling. The three-judge panel included Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, along with Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, both appointees of former President Barack Obama. The judges requested additional written legal arguments later this month regarding the center's effort to pause the lower court's ruling, which requires Trump's name to be removed from the building, website, promotional materials, and other areas.
The center had taken steps in recent days to reverse the name change in some locations, but had retained the letters spelling "The Donald J. Trump and" on the building's exterior while pursuing legal remedies.
In earlier filings to the DC Circuit, Justice Department lawyers reiterated arguments previously made before Judge Cooper, including that restoring the original name could cause public confusion should they ultimately prevail. They also raised concerns that compliance could jeopardize private donations to the center, pointing to bylaws requiring funds to be returned to donors if Trump's name is removed from the center's filings, marketing, branding, facade, or other affiliated locations. "All of this money, hundreds of millions of dollars, will have to be immediately returned, or not received by the Center," the department told the appeals court.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat who has led the legal challenge, visited the site Friday to survey the scene. "We know we're on the right side of justice and the law," Beatty told applauding protesters. "No matter what happens, we're going to continue to fight for the Kennedy family." She acknowledged the fight was far from over. "Of course they're going to fight us. Every bit of the way, there's going to be a legal fight," she added.
After the Kennedy Center confirmed Trump's name had been removed, Beatty posted a video of herself dancing on social media, captioned: "POV: When you protect the Kennedy Center."
The signage bearing Trump's name had been installed in December after the board of trustees voted to include his name in honor of the president, who has made sweeping changes to the institution's leadership and programming. The move drew criticism from the Kennedy family and prompted the legal challenge that ultimately led to Saturday's removal.
At a Thursday board meeting, trustees also voted to approve a resolution honoring Trump's "profound dedication" to the arts center and to establish the "Trump Kennedy Center Fund," described by a center official as a vehicle to raise additional private funds to endow the institution. Those funds would be separate from the $257 million allocated by Congress through Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill." It remains unclear whether the president will personally contribute to the fund bearing his name.
Among those who gathered outside the center Saturday was Jones, a patron since 2007, who said she felt "disgust" when Trump's name was first added. "I don't know if I was even angry. I was just disgusted that somebody thinks, who thinks and want to, to use their power to get what they want even though they don't deserve it," she said.
Jon Knepp, who said he previously worked at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, said the ruling sends a clear message: "get rid of the nonsense of just slapping your name on stuff that doesn't belong to you."
Susana Quinonez, a 22-year patron of the institution who had remained at the center until 2 a.m. when the tarp went up, returned later Saturday to check on progress. She dismissed suggestions the covering was a security measure, saying she believed the removal was being obscured so that "people don't enjoy watching that."
