President Donald Trump's name was removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts around 3 a.m. Saturday, hours after a federal judge's initial deadline.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the performing arts venue last month, ruling that the board acted unlawfully by renaming the institution without an act of Congress. He gave the board until end of day Friday to scrub references to him from the building’s facade, website and other official materials. The center appeared to be complying, wiping Trump’s name from its website earlier this week.
But Justice Department attorneys representing the center waged a final stand in the 36 hours before the court-ordered deadline. On Thursday night, they requested an extension of that deadline while the judge considered their appeal, arguing that removing the name, only to later replace it after a successful appeal, would be a waste of time and money.
When U.S. District Judge Christipher Cooper rejected that request Friday, the lawyers filed an emergency motion in an appeals court just before 4 p.m. once against requesting a delay, even as construction crews had already set up scaffolding near the sign. That didn’t work either. The center's one successful appeal was filed just before midnight Friday: lawyers requested until noon Saturday to complete the removal, citing rain delays.
Spokespeople for the White House and Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump has yet to comment on the removal.
Workers began putting up scaffolding by the Kennedy Center's facade Thursday morning. All throughout the day, onlookers crowded below the scaffolding, chanting “Take it off! Take it off!”
Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democratic congresswoman and Kennedy Center board member who sued over the renaming and closure, appeared outside the center Friday to thank spectators for their support.
“Every bit of the way there is going to be a legal fight so it means a lot to me that you are all here,” she told them. “The law is on our side.”
From the crowd Friday afternoon watched Bill Foster, 72, who worked at the Kennedy Center for nearly 35 years. He had been mourning the place to which he had dedicated decades, he said, and came to see what he called – for the first time in a long time – a glimpse of hope.
“The executive branch of our government has now killed the Kennedy Center. It is, in my opinion, dead,” Foster said. “I’m hoping that this is one small step toward rebuilding. We built it once, and we can build it again.”
Local drag performer Tara Hoot stood nearby, blowing bubbles from a bubble gun while clad in a pink wig, dress and boa. Hoot was among the drag queens who, in protest, attended the Les Misérables show where Trump made his Kennedy Center debut. Hoot also demonstrates in front of the performing arts center every Friday as part of a group called Hands Off the Arts.
“It’s about time the courts are catching up with public opinion,” Hoot said Friday. “This is a memorial to an assassinated president, who would want to put their name in front of that?”
The anticipation lasted hours. At one point around 4 p.m., workers climbed to the top level of scaffolding, standing directly in front of the letters spelling out “Donald J. Trump.”
The crowd waited on bated breath, watching the construction crew’s every move. “I see a hammer!” one woman yelled. Others began chanting their gratitude toward the mostly Spanish-speaking crew. Then, the skies opened up, rain began pouring and the crew clambered back down to seek shelter.
Deb Baugh, a 71-year-old Watergate resident who called the center her “backyard”, said that in contrast to the removal, the sign’s installation was not as much of a “theatrical production.”
It took a couple men and an aerial work platform, or cherry picker, she said – not over a dozen workers spending hours building scaffolding. A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center did not immediately answer questions about the difference in construction projects.
Hundreds waited hours, through blazing heat and pouring rain, to see the sign's removal. But crews put a white tarp up surrounding the sign after midnight, obstructing the view from below.
Inside the center that evening, visitors could still stop by the gift shop and purchase “The Trump Kennedy Center” merch: a t-shirt for $30, a quarter-zip for $75 and an embroidered tote bag for $78.
When asked whether there was a plan for the merchandise, the cashier shrugged. But, according to her, “they’re selling pretty fast so maybe they won’t even have to be removed.”
