Workers began tearing Donald Trump's name off the Kennedy Center Friday, carrying out a federal court order his own lawyers had scrambled overnight to block.
A federal judge ruled last month that the renaming was flatly illegal. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said Trump's hand-picked board never had the authority to put the president's name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — because Congress created it and only Congress gets to rename it. The lawsuit was filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who sits on the center's board as an ex officio member.
"Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," Cooper wrote in his ruling, giving the administration 14 days to strip Trump's name from the building.
Trump's board had voted in December 2025 to rename the iconic performing arts venue, and workers bolted his name to the facade overnight — without a congressional vote and without public input.
Friday was the deadline to take it back down. Trump's lawyers tried to run out the clock, arguing the removal would be "incredibly confusing for the public" and a waste of money if the name eventually goes back up. The Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal Thursday night.
Trump's name had already been scrubbed from the center's website and social media pages earlier this week.
After the original court ruling, Trump took to social media to vent. "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.