Kennedy Center Removes Trump’s Name From Building
President Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Center over the weekend after a federal judge ruled the performing arts center’s board of directors could not rename the taxpayer-backed institution without Congress.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Fox News reported.
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Disgraced journalist Jim Acosta livestreamed the entire moment and noted it was “very much like watching the Berlin Wall coming down.”
“It is a sign that humankind can stand up against tyranny,” he said.
Popular talk radio host Todd Starnes called on Congress to strip all federal funding for the Kennedy Center. He also said they should halt all restoration and renovation plans.
“For decades the Democrats allowed the Kennedy Center to decay,” Starnes said. “If the Democrats did not care to repair the building why should Republicans? In 2025 the Kennedy Center requested $45.7 million from taxpayers. Enough. Let the building rot.”
Trump blasted the ruling, writing that “Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of,” according to Fox News.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) celebrated the decision, saying in a statement provided to Fox News Digital, “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump.”
Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Daravi defended Trump’s renovation push, saying the center “requires an urgent and significant restoration” and that officials remained committed to “every lawful avenue” to restore it, Fox News reported.
The administration had argued that removing the president’s name would result in a fundraising nightmare.
“Without the name, “Trump” on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt,” the administration wrote in a court filing, “but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded or terminated.”
The dirty deed was done in the wee hours of the morning, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Workers in white hard hats spent much of Friday night building scaffolding that reached Trump’s name as crowds below yelled, “Take it down!” A few hundred people gathered at the center to watch the removal of Trump’s name. Many more were watching livestreams online.
Between 1 and 2 a.m., the workers began to fasten large, white tarps to the scaffolding, obscuring the crowd’s view and drawing boos from some on the ground. But the Associated Press later published photos of a worker behind the tarps taking a letter off the wall.
Conservatives noted Trump had secured $257 million for repairs, maintenance, security and capital projects at the aging facility, according to Fox News.
Beatty had earlier accused Trump and his allies of trying to “trample federal law and bypass Congress to feed his ego,” according to her congressional office.
Jeanette Mercado and her husband, Bert, had traveled to Washington from Wasco, in California’s Central Valley, to see the capital’s monuments and came upon the scaffolding and the gathering crowd, The New York Times reported.
“I like Trump, I like what he’s doing for our country. I think he’s a blessing for our country, and I don’t see anything wrong with his name being added,” Ms. Mercado said, her voice almost drowned out by chants of “Take it down.”