Workers Ready to Remove Trump’s Name from the Kennedy Center

Construction workers readied Friday to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after a judge denied a last-minute effort to keep Trump’s mark atop the storied Washington institution.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Friday afternoon that the center’s board and the Justice Department had not made a strong case they would prevail in an appeal of his earlier decision that the name be removed by Friday’s end.

Workers erected scaffolding earlier Friday while the case played out, preparing to remove the individual letters from the president’s name that were added to the Kennedy Center on Dec. 19. A crowd gathered around to watch, cheering “take it down” as the workers clad in yellow vests milled around the front of the center.

The Kennedy Center and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NOTUS on Friday.

The planned return to the long-standing name comes after months of legal wrangling, including an effort by the board — filled with Trump allies — on Thursday to halt Cooper’s previous order that the president’s name come off by the end of the day Friday.

“Requiring a name change now, only to potentially revert back to the current name after appeal would be incredibly confusing for the public,” the lawyers argued in a court filing.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and an ex officio member of the center’s board of trustees, countered that the administration’s attempt to keep the Trump-Kennedy Center “grasps at straws.”

“It’s clear to me after this latest board meeting that some of Donald Trump’s appointees are more focused on elevating the president than advancing the arts,” Beatty said in a statement. “The court was clear in its order because the statute is clear: Only Congress can change the name of the Kennedy Center.”

The center’s board voted in December to rename the institution. Several months prior, Trump fired several incumbent trustees from the board and appointed new members, including himself. The board then named him chair of the center.

Legal troubles for the performing arts center showed no signs of abating Friday. The Washington National Opera filed suit Thursday demanding that the center pay more than $17 million that the opera company estimates it is owed. The opera claims that Kennedy Center officials have refused to release the money.