The bronze lettering displaying President Donald Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Center’s exterior during the early hours of June 13.
Crews reportedly began taking down the letters around 3 a.m., drawing a crowd despite rainy weather and thunderstorms. According to USA Today, some spectators cheered and sang “God Bless America,” while passing motorists showed their support by honking their horns.
The Kennedy Center had missed its original June 12 deadline of 11:59 p.m. to remove the name, citing severe weather conditions. A judge later granted an extension, pushing the deadline to noon the following day. In a court filing submitted Saturday, Kennedy Center Executive Director and COO Charles Matthew Floca confirmed that Trump’s name had been completely removed from the building.
The move came less than six months after the President’s name was added to the venue in December. On May 29, U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees had violated what he described as “Congress’s unequivocal mandate” by renaming the institution without congressional approval. He ordered the original name to be restored by June 12.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Judge Cooper wrote in his ruling.
Ahead of the physical removal, references to Trump had already been erased from the center’s website, voicemail system, and YouTube channel. Officials also updated employee email signatures and issued new identification badges to reflect the change.
Before the name was removed, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice made last-minute efforts to halt Judge Cooper’s ruling.
Prior to the court decision, Trump had reportedly proposed major plans for the Kennedy Center, including a two-year shutdown to complete extensive renovations.
Following Cooper’s ruling in May, however, Trump revealed that he intended to return control of the institution to Congress, expressing his frustration in a post on Truth Social.
“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself!” he 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.’”
