Donald Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center, but not without a fight

Some laws are still being enforced: President Donald Trump’s name will be removed from the front wall of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. After Trump persuaded the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees—whose members he hand-picked—to add his name to the front wall of the Washington, D.C., institution in December, backlash was swift. Legal scholars and armchair historians alike dubbed the move illegal, pointing out that the center had been named in 1964 by an act of Congress after President Kennedy’s assassination—a designation that a board of trustees has no authority to overturn.

The Trump administration appeared to believe the decision would go unchallenged, with White House communications director Steven Cheung responding mirthfully to reporters’ and lawyers’ objections even as major artists and organizations like Philip Glass, the Washington National Opera, and the New York City Ballet cancelled performances there. Trump further announced that the center would be shut down for two years in July 2026; a day later, CNN reported that the center hadn’t been able to sign enough acts for the forthcoming season anyway.

But on the morning of Saturday, June 13, liberals and law-abiders rejoiced as workers began to pry Trump’s name off the building’s facade. The move came two weeks after a D.C. judge ruled that Trump had changed the name of the center illegally and had to change it back, a ruling that the administration unsuccessfully appealed. The further “renovations” to the building have also been cancelled at the judge’s behest, but it is unclear whether the administration will comply. A crew placed large white tarps over their scaffolding as they pulled the letters off, obscuring the view from cheering onlookers. The tarp remains in place, obscuring the center’s original name.

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