Washington, D.C. – Recent images reveal that President Donald Trump’s name has been removed from the facade of the Kennedy Center following a lengthy legal battle. The removal was obscured by scaffolding and a tarp erected on June 13, a day after a federal judge’s deadline, preventing public view of the changes.
Mallory Miller, a former Kennedy Center employee and co-founder of the activist group Hands Off the Arts, shared the photos with NBC News. She argued that the tarp’s presence aims to protect Trump’s ego, suggesting the Trump administration does not wish to see the building without his name before exhausting appeals.
The Kennedy Center has not responded to inquiries regarding the ongoing presence of the tarp and scaffolding, nearly 10 days post-removal.
The Washington Post initially reported the new photographs. The Kennedy Center was named the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1964, following President Kennedy’s assassination and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s enactment of the naming bill.
The signage had been changed in December to read: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” following a vote by Trump’s chosen board members. A federal judge ruled that the board lacked the authority to rename the building unilaterally.
Judge Christopher Cooper emphasized that only Congress could change the building’s name in his May 29 decision. The continuous presence of the tarp has raised questions about whether its main purpose is masking the removal of Trump’s name from public view.
On June 13, a Kennedy Center official informed Judge Cooper that all references to Trump, both online and on the building, had been removed. Miller, previously involved in the Kennedy Center’s artistic programming, credited “people power” for the change. She asserted that Trump attempted to attach his name to a vital cultural landmark, but public opposition proved significant in preserving the Center’s original name.