Kennedy Center board asks court for more time as it works to comply with order to remove Trump's name

The underlying ruling, issued earlier this year, held that the Kennedy Center could not be renamed without Congressional approval. After Trump was named chairman of a reconstituted board, the building was renamed 'The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.' That name was added to the façade in December 2025, less than six months before the removal operation.

With the appeals court's late-Friday denial of a stay, the administration lost its bid to keep the lettering in place while it pursued further legal challenges. The Justice Department had told the court the government could not meet the Friday 11:59 p.m. deadline because of the thunderstorms. The board's filing effectively acknowledged that the work was already under way on the building, with scaffolding erected Friday around the section where Trump's name had been affixed.

The overnight removal operation

In a pre-dawn operation, laborers draped the scaffolding in tarpaulin before using equipment to detach the giant metallic letters. The work drew a crowd that grew into the hundreds as rain and thunderstorms moved through the capital overnight. Some onlookers heckled the workers, shouting 'Cover up!' and 'Cowards!' as the tarps were hoisted into place.

One month into his second term, Trump ousted the Kennedy Center's president, board chair and board members, replacing them with a slate of new trustees who subsequently named him chairman. The board then voted in December to add Trump's name to the building, a step the lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio challenged as exceeding the center's authority under its enabling law.

Beatty, a Democrat, said on social media that she had stood outside to watch the removal: 'No more stalling. It's time for Trump to obey the law.' Her lawsuit argued that adding a sitting president's name to the building's exterior required Congressional authorization, an argument the trial court accepted.

Onlookers and the symbolism of the tarps

Among the onlookers was Krystal Brewer, 40, who works for a social justice advocacy group. She framed the removal as a question of institutional limits. 'It's about just not being able to do something just because you think you're the most powerful person and you can defy the courts,' she said, describing the moment as a way to 'enforce accountability, maintain government checks and balances, and reclaim a piece of Washington.'

Mary Foltz, a 60-year-old nurse, watched the tarps being raised a little before 2 a.m. on Saturday. She said the decision to conceal the work behind opaque sheeting was itself revealing. 'I think there's a lack of transparency — and that's just the epitome of it,' Foltz said, calling the tarping a metaphor for the Trump administration.

More than a dozen bronze letters spelling Trump's name were removed from the building's façade. References to Trump on the Kennedy Center's website have also been taken down, according to the filing. The center's operators have framed the episode as a logistical and weather-driven delay rather than a substantive legal dispute, even as they continue pressing the court for additional time.

The legal fight and the fundraising argument

The administration has argued, in asking a higher court to freeze the ruling, that Trump's name had helped attract donors and was crucial to fundraising for the Kennedy Center's planned renovation. That argument did not persuade the appeals court to grant a stay, and the board's subsequent request asked only for a narrow extension to finish the physical work.

The Kennedy Center, opened in 1971 as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, is one of Washington's most iconic landmarks. The current episode marks the end of Trump's effort, begun early in his second term, to assert control over the institution and to embed his name on the building's exterior.

Trump's second term has featured other high-profile alterations to federal property in the capital, including the controversial demolition of the White House's East Wing to make way for a large ballroom and the hanging of large banners bearing his face from several federal buildings. The Kennedy Center case stands out because the renaming was carried out by the institution's own board rather than by executive order, a distinction at the heart of the litigation.

What happens next at the Kennedy Center

The board's filing stopped short of conceding the underlying legal question, focusing instead on the practical demands of finishing the removal in heavy weather. Whether the court grants the requested pause will determine whether the last of the letters come down over the weekend or remain partially affixed into next week, while broader appeals continue.

For Beatty and the plaintiffs, the removal itself — even if carried out under cover of tarp and pre-dawn hours — represents the outcome they sought. The case now moves into a phase in which the appellate court will consider the merits of the ruling, not merely whether it should be paused pending appeal.