Judges deny last-minute Trump appeal to keep his name on Kennedy Center – USA Today

President Donald Trump took the battle to keep his name on the Kennedy Center to a higher court on June 12, filing an emergency motion to halt any attempt to erase him from the iconic Washington, D.C. concert hall.
But it was immediately denied by judges, paving the way for the president’s name to be removed from the building as a crowd of onlookers stood by to watch workers do the job. After midnight on June 13, workers were still erecting a scaffold needed to remove the lettering.
Nevertheless, intermittent thunder and lightning didn’t stop the crowd from gathering around the building to watch the spectacle, not unlike a big crowd before a typical concert venue. Wearing fancy clothes and bringing a festive attitude, they watched as workers readied scaffolding for the expected name take-down.
Carolina Clarence, a retired kindergarten teacher who lives nearby, came in the afternoon and again in the evening with her dog, Ruffino.
“We’re going to see this coming down,” she said. It was ‘ridiculous’ for Trump to put his name up. “He has done a lot of hurt . . . A lot of donations have stopped’ and some shows have cancelled. “They’re going to destroy the Kennedy Center.”
Katrina Clark, a local artist and actor, carried a sign with the Shakespearian line from Hamlet, “The play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” She said she used to work at the Kennedy Center.
“It’s an artistic home for me,” she said, noting that adding Trump’s name to a memorial for a slain president John F. Kennedy was ‘morally and ethically wrong.’ She said her friends at the center have been fired, laid off and treated with union violations. She sees ‘active grieving’ among them. ‘This is a step of hope,’ in removing Trump’s name, she said. And she said the court case shows ‘something is working in our democracy.’
Trump’s lawyers filed the motion with the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to pause a lower court judge’s order that the president’s name be removed from the building. The filing comes in response to U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper finding Trump’s name was added illegally and must be removed.
Cooper has halted repeated efforts to keep Trump’s name on the building. The latest came earlier on Friday when he denied a June 11 motion Trump’s lawyers made in his court to pause the removal.
The promise of seeing Trump’s name taken down has drawn crowds to the area in anticipation of watching the judge’s orders be fulfilled. Trump’s name remains on the building as of early Friday evening. But scaffolding is erected that is expected to aid workers in removing Trump’s name.
USA TODAY contacted the White House for comment.
Cooper’s ruling drew crowds to the Kennedy Center, hoping to see Trump’s name removed from the building on Friday afternoon. Several media outlets including MS Now and The Associated Press – and a group called Hands Off the Arts – had livestreams on their YouTube channels showing workers making their way up scaffolding along the building’s exterior where Trump’s name appears atop that of Kennedy’s.
Workers left the scaffolding about 4 p.m. ET as some observers hoisted umbrellas.
The judge’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by Democratic U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a member of the Kennedy Center’s board.
Trump began enacting his vision for the world-renowned arts center in February 2025, when he abruptly dismissed the board, replaced its members with political allies and appointed himself as the new chairman.
In an effort to make the venue “less woke,” he canceled several scheduled performances and secured $257 million in federal dollars for renovations he said are badly needed.
The newly appointed board voted to rename the Kennedy Center the “Trump-Kennedy Center” in December, with crews appearing to install new signage on the building less than 24 hours after the decision that Trump called “unanimous.”
This is a devloping story. This story has been updated with new information.
Contributing: Michael Loria, Mike Snider & Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY; and Reuters.
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@usatodayco.com.

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