The long-awaited removal of Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center was shielded from public view in an apparent bid to soften the blow for the 79-year-old president.
In the early hours of Saturday, workers began removing Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts facade, following a ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper that the name change was unlawful.
The removal came after the Friday deadline set by Cooper had already passed, following a thunderstorm that swept through the nation’s capital. It also came after the center’s Trump-aligned board of trustees attempted a last-minute appeal to block the decision, which was rejected.
Workers began preparations on Friday evening, erecting scaffolding as crowds reportedly chanted “Take it down!” Work later paused, leaving the lettering in place, and the center’s executive director asked a federal district court for a 12-hour extension, citing a series of storms as the cause of the delay.
Then, around 3 a.m. on Saturday, the removal of the president’s name began—but not openly, as workers hung heavy white tarps to obscure the process from public view, according to The New York Times.
A Times photographer caught a glimpse of the letter “A” being removed, allegedly by hand, with no sound of power tools heard. Justice Department attorneys representing the Kennedy Center said crews were expected to fully remove Trump’s name “in the early hours” of Saturday.
The president’s name was added to the building in December after Trump’s handpicked board of trustees approved the change at the historic center, which Congress named in 1964 in honor of President John F. Kennedy following his assassination.
Trump’s involvement in the center led to declining ticket sales, widespread artist cancellations, and the departure of the National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper declared in his 93-page opinion in late May, stating that the board made its decision based on an “insufficient, one-sided presentation of information.”
Cooper’s decision was a major blow for Trump, who took to Truth Social to post a 582-word message expressing his frustration, attacking the judge, and claiming he wants to transfer control of the institution to Congress.
“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,’” he wrote.
Yet, according to CNN, the president was present at a Thursday board meeting that voted to appeal the decision to remove his name from the building—a bid that ultimately proved unsuccessful.
Having been elected chair of the center by his handpicked board one month into his second term, the president dialed into the meeting from the Oval Office to express his frustration with Cooper and his wife, Amy Jeffress, who previously served as Joe Biden’s personal lawyer.
Before the final step of removing the president’s name from the building, the center also took down Trump’s name from its website and YouTube channel, and lawyers for the center informed employees that they “must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center.’”
“It’s a bittersweet day because I want to make certain it goes down,” retired higher education and events worker Bonnie Berry, who refused to work on the Kennedy Center Honors last year, told The Guardian.
“I haven’t walked on this site for over a year since he put the sign up,” she added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
