On Saturday, President Donald Trump’s name was taken down from the facade of the Kennedy Center, marking the end of his extended effort to gain control over this prominent cultural site in Washington.
In a court filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Saturday, Matthew Floca, the Kennedy Center’s chief operating officer and executive director, confirmed that crews had removed “all physical signage” suggesting the renaming of the Kennedy Center after President Trump or any individual other than President Kennedy.
Early on Saturday morning, workers concealed by a large white tarp took down Trump’s name from the building’s white exterior, a task delayed by weather-related issues past a Friday deadline, according to Floca. The tarp remained in place through Saturday night.
This action followed a late May ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who determined that Trump’s attempt to rename the performing arts center in his own honor was illegal, violating federal law that restricts the center’s naming to Kennedy and bypassing Congressional authority.
Since the ruling, officials have removed Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center’s website, updated identification cards, revised employee email signatures, and withdrawn any trademark applications that included Trump’s name, as outlined by Floca in his filing. The building’s original name was restored after attempts by the administration and the Department of Justice to halt Cooper’s ruling were rejected by both Cooper and an appeals court on Friday.
This development is a significant setback for the president, who had planned to fill the Kennedy Center’s board with his supporters and close it for two years for extensive renovations.
Judge Cooper, appointed by Barack Obama, also blocked the planned closure of the Kennedy Center in his May decision, which led to Trump publicly expressing his intention to return the institution to Congressional control in a Truth Social post soon after.
“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself!” Trump wrote. “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.’”
