One day after a federal court’s ordered deadline for removal passed, construction crews have started taking former U.S. President Donald Trump’s name off the exterior facade of Washington DC’s iconic John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The process follows a weeks-long legal battle over the controversial addition of Trump’s name to the national cultural landmark, which is permanently enshrined by federal law as a memorial to assassinated 35th President John F. Kennedy.
In late May, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper issued a landmark ruling that declared the addition of Trump’s name to the venue unlawful. The judge found that no federal statute grants the executive branch authority to rename a congressionally designated memorial without explicit approval from Congress, and he ordered the name to be fully removed by Friday, June 12.
Crews first moved into place on the afternoon of June 12, assembling large scaffolding along the Kennedy Center’s front facade as curious onlookers gathered throughout the evening to watch the preparations. However, severe thunderstorms rolling through the DC area forced work to be halted overnight, pushing the start of actual letter removal to early Saturday morning. By the time work resumed Saturday, crews draped long opaque plastic sheeting along the structure to obscure the removal process from public view while the work proceeded.
Ahead of the scheduled removal, the Trump administration mounted a last-ditch legal effort to pause the court’s order and delay the work indefinitely. Judge Cooper rejected this emergency request outright, clearing the path for crews to proceed with the deconstruction. A subsequent appeal to the federal appeals court also failed, with justices declining to issue an emergency stay to block the removal pending future legal arguments over the case.
The entire legal dispute grows out of a sweeping power grab Trump executed at the Kennedy Center shortly after he began his second term. In February 2025, Trump replaced multiple existing sitting members of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, installed himself as a new trustee, and then arranged to be elected chairman of the institution’s governing body. Later that year, as part of a broader series of rebranding changes across Washington DC’s federal landmarks, Trump formally announced his decision to add his own name to the Kennedy Center’s exterior.
Throughout the legal proceedings, the Trump administration defended the name addition, arguing that reversing the change would create unnecessary public confusion if the court’s ruling were eventually overturned on appeal. On the ground Friday, as scaffolding went up, some gathered onlookers openly supported the removal, chanting “take it down” as crews prepared the site, according to CBS News, the US-based news partner of the BBC.