Construction workers failed to remove Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center on deadline because of poor weather in Washington, D.C., according to the venue’s executive director.
In court filings late Friday night, executive director Charles Matthew “Matt” Floca said that Trump signage couldn’t be taken down by midnight that night “due to thunderstorms which presented safety concerns to workers completing the compliance task.”
As of Monday morning, scaffolding outside the center remains in place — with a massive white tarp that covers up what’s left of the signage.
Workers began erecting scaffolding on Friday, hours before the Kennedy Center’s deadline to comply with court orders to remove the president’s name from the facade. Last month, Trump lost a legal fight to rename the building after himself, but his name was still emblazoned on the side of the building past the deadline to take it down.
A federal judge determined that the Kennedy Center’s new board, appointed by the president, could not rename the building, as it was designated as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy by Congress, and only Congress has the ability to rename the building.
“To comply with this order, you must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center’,” the Kennedy Center’s general counsel told venue staff earlier this month.
“Other changes, such as to templates and forms, signage, brochures, and website pages, must be completed no later than Friday, June 12, 2026,” the memo stated.
A federal judge had ordered the Kennedy Center’s compliance by midnight June 12 in his May 29 order, but the Trump administration fired off an exclamation-point filled emergency appeal hours before the deadline. The D.C. appeals court denied that emergency appeal Friday evening.
Floca failed to explain why the construction crew waited until the June 12 deadline to begin removing the president’s name.
Construction workers surrounded by a crowd of people chanting “take it off” erected scaffolding around the signage on Friday before covering it with a massive tarp.
Before midnight, the Kennedy Center asked for a 12-hour delay in a last-ditch bid to stall removal of the president’s name, citing bad weather that forced workers off the job earlier in the day.
Workers could be seen taking the large metallic lettering of the president’s name off of the memorial site in the early morning hours on Saturday.
The Kennedy Center is among several D.C. monuments where the real-estate-mogul-turned-president has attempted to leave his mark. The administration recently repainted the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and staged a UFC fight on the White House lawn with a massive stage he has suggested he could make a permanent fixture.
The president is also embroiled in a legal battle over the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom with a sprawling underground bunker with military installations on the site.
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