Kennedy Center Drops Trump’s Name After Failed Court Bid (3)

The Kennedy Center has removed President Donald Trump’s name from the building after a last-minute bid to keep it displayed got rejected by multiple courts.

In a Saturday court filing, Justice Department lawyers said the Kennedy Center was “now in full compliance” with a judge’s order to drop’s name from signs, websites, and trademark applications.

The Kennedy Center also removed Trump’s name from employee email signatures, letterhead, brochures, promotional materials, and contracts and issued employees new identification cards, Kennedy Center Executive Director Charles Matthew Floca said in an accompanying declaration.

The filings came a day after a federal judge denied the Kennedy Center’s request to pause a permanent injunction barring the performing-arts venue from displaying Trump’s name pending its appeal of the order.

Hours later, the Kennedy Center filed an emergency motion at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to stay the lower court ruling by District Court Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper. By that time, workers had begun removal work on scaffolding outside the Kennedy Center, which stopped as thunderstorms began in Washington.

The DC Circuit denied the motion for an immediate administrative stay and set a briefing schedule.

Onlookers gathered outside the building overnight where workers covered scaffolding with a tarp to obscure the removal of Trump’s name from the exterior.

The Justice Department’s appellate filing for the first time claims that the Bylaws of “The Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation” requires the board of directors to condition donations to the center on Trump’s name remaining on the building.

“The reason for this clause is that people and companies, who have given, or will be giving, millions of dollars to the Center were only willing to do so with the name ‘Trump’ on the Building,” the emergency motion to stay reads. “Many did it because they loved the concept of two Great Presidents, one Republican, one Democrat, working together as one—In many ways, a bipartisan relationship!”

The Kennedy Center’s motion for a stay in the district court, filed Thursday, claimed the board has “strong arguments to raise on appeal” and argued it would be “wasteful” and “confusing for the public” to force the center to remove the signage only to replace it, should the center prevail before the D.C. Circuit.

The center also claimed removing the Trump signage could threaten the center’s fundraising efforts. But Cooper already said there was no evidence showing that current or future donations depended on Trump’s name being on the building.

Cooper’s May 29 order declared the board’s unilateral renaming of the Kennedy Center unlawful and gave the board two weeks to either comply with the injunction or appeal it.

The center initially took steps to comply but then reversed course just before the Friday deadline.

The plaintiff, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who is an ex-officio board member, called the effort to halt the injunction belated and “frivolous” in a filing opposing the requested stay.

“A party that sincerely believes it might suffer irreparable harm does not run out the clock in this manner,” she said.

In addition to ordering the removal of Trump’s name from the façade, website and official materials, Cooper also said the board couldn’t strip ex officio trustees of their voting rights and preliminarily enjoined the board from closing the center for a two-year renovation.

Shortly after taking office, Trump replaced a number of the Kennedy Center’s trustees and appointed himself to serve on the board. The new board subsequently elected him as chair and replaced the center’s president at his direction.

The board decided to rename the center in December, and Trump’s name was added to the building the following day. It then voted to close the center in March after Trump announced two years of planned renovations.

Cooper said he was preliminarily enjoining the closure because it appeared the board based its decision “on an insufficient, one-sided presentation” and failed to adequately consider the its obligations and the consequences of closure.

Beatty is represented by Washington Litigation Group and Democracy Defenders Fund. Appearing outside the Kennedy Center Friday as removal work got underway, Beatty said, “Every bit of the way, there’s gonna to be a legal fight,”

The case is Beatty v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-04480, order 6/12/26.