Construction crew set to strip Trump’s name from Kennedy Center after president loses another legal battle
The “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” is no more.
Construction crews in hard hats and neon green high-vis vests erected scaffolding to remove the president’s name from the Kennedy Center’s marble facade after a federal judge denied the administration’s 11th-hour attempt to rename the venue after himself.
Last month, Washington, D.C. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the administration from changing the name of the iconic performing arts center, noting that Congress made it “crystal clear” that the building is to only be named after former President Kennedy, “and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial” based on a “unilateral say-so.”
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote May 29.
The Trump administration is appealing that ruling and asked Cooper to pause his decision during the legal fight. That request was rejected Friday afternoon.
The government failed to demonstrate that it would be likely to win on appeal or suffer “irreparable harm” if Trump’s name was taken off the building while a legal challenge continues, Cooper wrote Friday.
A crowd chanted “take if off” as construction workers erected scaffolding to begin removing the president’s name from the building later that afternoon.
Workers left the building after an afternoon downpour.
On June 5, Kennedy Center officials ordered staff to “immediately” change email signatures, letterhead and other documents back to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center” no later than June 12, according to an internal memo shared in court documents.
The Kennedy Center also removed the president’s name from the website.
Images of construction crews stripping the president’s name in metal letters from the building’s exterior are another embarrassing blow in the mountain of legal challenges against the administration.
The president’s latest loss follows a lawsuit from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is also an ex officio trustee of the center. Last year, she challenged the Kennedy Center board’s decision to permanently add the president’s name to the building, which is set to close on July 4 to “begin Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex,” according to Trump.
Beatty labelled Trump’s rebranding a “personal vanity project.”
The renovations join the president’s dramatic transformation of the nation’s capital with his multi-billion dollar package of gilded, taxpayer-supported renovations and new construction that caters to his tastes, from the demolition of the East Wing of the White House for a massive ballroom to plans for the world’s largest “triumphal” arch and an overhaul of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
