Trump's Name Removed From Kennedy Center After Court-Ordered Deadline

Workers finished stripping President Donald Trump's name from the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts early Saturday, hours after a court-ordered deadline forced the removal of more than a dozen bronze letters that had adorned the Washington landmark for less than six months.

The takedown capped a remarkable legal and cultural fight over one of the capital's most recognizable cultural institutions. Trump's name had been affixed to the building in December after a board of trustees he reshaped with his own appointees voted to rename the center in his honor. Critics, including members of the Kennedy family, denounced the move as a politicization of a memorial to the slain 35th president, and a lawsuit quickly followed.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the center could not be renamed without the approval of Congress, which created the institution and dedicated it to John F. Kennedy. On Friday, Cooper dismissed an effort by the board to reverse his earlier order, leaving intact a deadline to take down the signage. By Saturday morning, crews had removed the lettering and draped tarps over the portico where the name had hung.

In a filing, a Kennedy Center official told the court that the board and the center had removed "all physical signage on the Kennedy Center building and grounds, including the front portico, that purports to rename the Kennedy Center after President Trump," and had scrubbed the name from its website as well. Photographs showed scaffolding and covered sections of the marble facade as the work was completed.

The dispute had already disrupted programming at the center, which serves as the national cultural center and a living memorial to Kennedy. A Christmas Eve jazz concert was canceled amid the uproar after the name was first added, and the renaming drew protests from artists and patrons who said the institution should remain above partisan branding. The board, whose members were handpicked by Trump after he installed himself as chairman, had defended the change as a tribute.

For now, the building reverts to the name it has carried since opening in 1971. The legal questions are not fully settled, and the administration could seek further review, but Saturday's removal marked a clear, if temporary, defeat for the president's effort to put his stamp on one of the country's premier arts venues. Tourists arriving along the Potomac on Saturday were met by an unusual sight: a famous facade hidden beneath tarps, its lettering gone.