Kennedy Center Removes Trump’s Name After Federal Judge Blocks Renaming
Workers at the Kennedy Center in Washington removed Donald J. Trump’s name from the building’s facade in the early hours of June 13, following a federal court ruling that barred him from renaming the institution. The change came after weeks of mounting legal and public pressure, and it left the center’s front still hidden behind scaffolding and a tarp as crews assessed exterior repairs.
Trump had added his own name to the building in December, a move that drew loud protests and lawsuits. On May 29, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that he could not change the center’s name, despite the board’s December vote. The judge also rejected Trump’s February order to close the center for renovations, after a group of eight preservationist societies sued to stop the shutdown.
A June 4 memo from the Kennedy Center’s attorneys instructed staff to begin removing Trump’s name from signs, letterheads, and email signatures, and to take it off the facade by June 12. The removal happened a few hours late, but it was carried out nonetheless. The center’s press office did not respond to questions about when the tarp and scaffolding would come down.
The visual dispute, however, is only one part of the larger institutional struggle. Just days after the name was removed, the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees — chaired by Trump and stocked with his allies — voted to establish a new endowment in his name. The fund is intended to provide an additional source of private support alongside the center’s existing endowments and roughly $257 million in federal funding appropriated for building renovations.
For the Kennedy Center, the episode underscores how a naming fight can become a proxy for broader questions about governance, public money, and who gets to define a national cultural institution.
