President Donald Trump’s name is being chiseled off the Kennedy Center less than six months after it was affixed to the historic performing arts center dedicated to President John F Kennedy.
Workers started pulling down the lettering in the early hours of Saturday after a days-long wait and a frantic last-minute legal battle launched by the Trump-aligned Kennedy Center’s leadership to keep the President’s name in place.
The removal comes less than 24 hours before Trump’s 80th birthday on Sunday, which is also Flag Day.
On Saturday morning, the removal of ‘The Donald j. Trump and’ – continued, with the building’s sign now going back to read ‘The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts’ one again.
Trump’s full name had been plastered on the historic building for 176 days after US District Judge Christopher Cooper deemed that the Trump-appointed Kennedy Center Board’s decision to include it was unlawful in late May.
Cooper gave the Kennedy Center until Friday, June 12 to remove all the Trump-branded signage from the building, grounds and website.
The judge, an Obama appointee, was responding to a lawsuit filed by Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty, who had standing in the case because she serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees as a member of Congress.
‘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,’ Cooper wrote.
President Donald Trump’s name is being chiseled off the Kennedy Center less than six months after it was affixed to the historic performing arts center
Workers are seen setting up scaffolding in front of President Donald Trump’s name that was attached to the Kennedy Center as a last-minute court battle played out
Trump complained on Truth Social that he was going to turn the Kennedy Center’s management over to Congress.
After Cooper’s initial order, the Kennedy Center’s website and much of the signage stopped using the Trump name.
But late Thursday, the Kennedy Center’s board filed a motion seeking a delay.
Cooper denied that request, arguing Friday that the defendants haven’t made a strong argument that they will succeed on an appeal.
He also pointed out that ‘de minimis resources that would be required to restore the Center’s current name in the event of a successful appeal.’
Meanwhile, scaffolding was put up around the grandest mention of Trump – on the Kennedy Center’s eastern wall between the building’s two main entrances.
A web camera had been set up days before by the group Hands Off the Arts, with a live view of the center.
A little after 3 pm ET about a dozen workers in neon yellow vests and hard hats started climbing up the scaffolding in front of the signage that read ‘The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.’
Former Kennedy Center employees embrace as workers set up scaffolding Friday to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the facade of the performing arts venue
Local drag queen Tara Hoot, who previously protested President Donald Trump’s appearance at the Les Miserables opening at the Kennedy Center, stands outside the venue as workers put up scaffolding to remove the President’s name
Fencing had been installed a safe distance away where a crowd had gathered to take the moment in.
They cheered as construction on the scaffolding progressed.
But Friday’s late afternoon thundershowers paused the work, with the construction crew climbing down from the metal scaffolding to safety.
The Kennedy Center’s board then filed an appeal again to a higher court asking for a response by Friday at 7 pm ET, according to the Associated Press.
Judge Cooper also previously challenged the Trump administration’s decision to close the Kennedy Center for two years on July 4 for renovations.
Beatty took to social media after work commenced in a cheeky video dancing to YMCA – a song that Trump has danced to on multiple occasions.
‘POV: When you protect the Kennedy Center,’ Beatty said mimicking his signature moves.
Her caption read: ‘Am I doing the dance right, Trump?’
After the name started to come down, Beatty (outside the Kennedy Center on Saturday) took to social media in a cheeky video dancing to YMCA – a song that Trump has danced to on multiple occasions
It all comes just a little more than a year after Trump replaced the center’s board of trustees with his political allies, who then elected him as board chair.
By December, they voted to rename the iconic landmark. Within hours, Trump’s name was added to the website and to the building the following morning.
The addition of his name sparked immediate controversy from the public and the Kennedy family.
Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, said at the time: ‘Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building. He can try to kill JFK.’
Schlossberg, who is running for Congress in New York, continued: ‘But JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice, and restore the freedoms generations fought for.’
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy II, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, also shared his thoughts on the building’s name change.
‘President John F. Kennedy believed that one day this country would live up to its promise of justice and equal rights for all,’ he said.
The addition of his name sparked immediate controversy from the public and family members of the former president, who was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas
‘For those beliefs and for his sacrifice, Congress voted to make The Kennedy Center a living memorial to him, as a place built by the people for the people to celebrate what connects us.
‘While this trespass on the People’s will is painful, President Kennedy would remind us that it is not buildings that define the greatness of a nation. It is the actions of its people and its leaders.
‘So, do not be distracted from what this Administration is actually trying to erase: our connection, our community, and our commitment to the rights of all,’ he concluded.
