Workers began removing Donald Trump’s name from the exterior of the Kennedy Center early Saturday, hours after a court-ordered deadline to do so.
All references to President Donald Trump inside, outside and on the Kennedy Center’s website, have been removed from the performing arts center, an official told a federal judge on Saturday.
Tarps blocked the view of the lettering outside.
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The message from the Kennedy Center official puts the performing arts center in compliance with the court’s extended order requiring them to remove Trump’s name, NBC News reports.
Workers began removing Trump’s name from the exterior of the Kennedy Center early Saturday, hours after a court-ordered deadline to remove references to the president and following storms that disrupted the work.
Scaffolding went up outside the Kennedy Center Friday as crews were expected to remove Trump’s name from the exterior of the building. Crowds formed to watch.
The Kennedy Center asked a judge to extend the deadline until noon Eastern Time on Saturday because of thunderstorms that had swept through the Washington area, causing a delay, the Associated Press reported.
In the filing, the Kennedy Center offered assurance that the “removal work is presently ongoing” and would “conclude in the early hours of the morning.”
A few hours later, workers began covering the scaffolding with tarps before they eventually started taking down Trump’s name. They packed up and left the site at about 3:30 a.m., though the tarps remained, leaving it impossible to determine if all the letters had been removed.
Several workers wearing neon yellow vests and hard hats worked for hours on an intensely hot and humid Friday afternoon, putting the scaffolding together.
Live video showed the crews continue to build the scaffolding into the late afternoon. They took a break from working as storms with rain and thunder came through about 4 p.m.
Boisterous cheers erupted from a crowd of onlookers at times as the scaffolding continued to climb higher.
The crowd included federal workers who were fired during DOGE’s massive layoffs, family and friends of Kennedy Center employees who were fired, longtime patrons of the performing arts center and Tara Hoot, who was the first drag queen to have a residency at the Kennedy Center.
At one point, they chanted, “Take them down!” Some drivers passing by honked in apparent celebration. One woman posed for a photo in front of the building while holding bottle of sparkling wine.
Letters on the side of the cultural institution said “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” until Dec. 19, when, without congressional approval, an upper line of letters was added to say “The Donald J. Trump and.”
A federal judge ruled last month that Trump’s handpicked board of trustees acted illegally when they voted to add Trump’s name to the venue, which Congress in 1964 named for Kennedy, who had recently been assassinated. Friday marks the deadline for removing Trump’s name.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” wrote U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper.
Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center mounted a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility. The board sought a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s May 29 ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center.
A judge on Friday denied the Kennedy Center’s request to pause the ruling ordering Trump’s name be removed.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson didn’t immediately comment on the ruling.
Last week, the Kennedy Center received an email from its general counsel that laid out steps for cooperation, including the removal of Trump’s name.
After mostly ignoring the Kennedy Center during his first term, Trump soon made the center a key part of his overall mission to purge federal cultural institutions of so-called “woke” influences. He ousted the leadership, filled the board of trustees with supporters and presided over such signature events as the Kennedy Honors ceremony.
In response, numerous performers cancelled planned appearances at the center, including Issa Rae, Bela Fleck and Renée Fleming.
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