Yellow-vested workers arrived Friday to put up scaffolding and start taking down President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center building.
Friday, which marked the deadline for the center to remove the president’s name from the Kennedy Center, saw crowds gathered to watch as workers arrived around 3:30 p.m. ET to start uninstalling the lettering. Cheers were heard from the crowd as the removal began.
“Take them down!” the construction site’s audience shouted while others driving by the Kennedy Center honked as the workers went about their job.
Judge Cooper gave the Washington, D.C., performing arts and cultural center two weeks to remove “Trump” from official messaging at the end of May. The president’s name had since been erased from the center’s website, YouTube and social media pages ahead of Friday’s deadline.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote at the time. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Lawyers for the Kennedy Center reportedly appealed a judge’s ruling to force the removal of Trump’s name from the building’s façade on Thursday, one day ahead of its deadline. A judge rejected the last minute bid to halt the removal.
The initial ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member on the Kennedy Board of Trustees. Trump added his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building in December after taking over the cultural center in February 2025.
