{"id":133035,"date":"2026-06-13T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-name-is-still-on-the-kennedy-center-though-officials-say-it-will-be-down-by-noon\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T01:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:26:22","slug":"trumps-name-is-still-on-the-kennedy-center-though-officials-say-it-will-be-down-by-noon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-name-is-still-on-the-kennedy-center-though-officials-say-it-will-be-down-by-noon\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s name is still on the Kennedy Center, though officials say it will be down by noon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Protestors
Protestors wave a U.S. and signs as workers prepare to remove President Donald Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Saturday, June 13, 2026. (AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump’s<\/a> name remained on the facade of the Kennedy Center early Saturday despite a court-ordered Friday deadline to remove references to Trump from the building and other aspects of the iconic performing arts venue\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

Scaffolding was erected Friday around a section of the building that includes Trump\u2019s name, but shortly after midnight, the Kennedy Center asked a judge to extend the deadline until noon Eastern Time on Saturday because of thunderstorms that had swept through the Washington area, causing a delay.<\/p>\n

In the filing, the Kennedy Center offered assurance that the \u201cremoval work is presently ongoing\u201d and would \u201cconclude in the early hours of the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few hours later, workers begin covering the scaffolding with tarps.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people spent hours Friday on the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center taking pictures and cheering occasionally as they broke into chants of \u201ctake it down.\u201d Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio board member who sued to have Trump’s name removed from the building, was spotted at one point on the plaza.<\/p>\n

Earlier Friday afternoon, a judge rejected a request to pause the court-ordered deadline. The institution appealed that ruling, an effort that was also rebuffed Friday evening.<\/p>\n

After ignoring the Kennedy Center for much of his first term, Trump has wielded tremendous influence over the venue during his return to office. Just a month into his second term, he ousted the center\u2019s previous leadership<\/a> and replaced it with a board of trustees that named him chairman. Trump’s name was quickly added to the building.<\/p>\n

In his ruling that only Congress could make changes to the Kennedy Center’s name, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center’s leadership argued in its appeal Friday that the renovation was badly needed and accused the lower court, in terms that seemed similar to Trump’s speech patterns, of interfering in the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe District Court is not allowing us to close in order to properly fix up and repair the Building, including potentially life threatening structural damage like beams and parking garage ceilings that are rusted, and in serious danger of falling onto people below,\u201d according to the appeal. \u201cIndeed, total collapse!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the Kennedy Center has fought efforts to remove Trump’s name from the building, it has taken steps to comply with Cooper’s initial ruling.<\/p>\n

A June 4 memo to staff<\/a> from the Kennedy Center\u2019s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as \u201cThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\u201d or \u201cKennedy Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center\u2019s website has dropped Trump’s name. And an earlier email sent to members<\/a> offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalists Anna Johnson, Mark Sherman and Emily Wang in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\"Workers
Workers construct scaffolding below the sign for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Rahmat Gul)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Rahmat Gul)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A double rainbow is seen from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Rahmat Gul)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Rahmat Gul)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Workers
Workers erect scaffolding in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sign in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Workers
Workers wait for the rain to stop before resuming work to remove President Donald Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protestors wave a U.S. and signs as workers prepare to remove President Donald Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Saturday, June 13, 2026. (AP Photo\/Cliff Owen)(AP Photo\/Cliff Owen) WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump’s name remained on the facade of the Kennedy Center early Saturday despite a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133045,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133035\/revisions\/133045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133035"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}