Attendees react to name removal from President Trump’s complaint at Kennedy Center
Visitors react to a judge’s ruling to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center, prompting the government to appeal.
President Donald Trump took his fight to keep his name on the Kennedy Center to the high court on June 12, filing an emergency motion to halt any attempt to remove his name from the iconic Washington, D.C., concert hall.
But that was quickly rejected by a judge, paving the way for the president’s name to be removed from the building as crowds of onlookers watched the workers go about their work.
Even with intermittent thunder and lightning, the audience gathered around the building to watch the spectacle, much like the crowds that gather in front of a typical concert venue. Dressed in flashy clothes and in a festive mood, they watched as workers prepared scaffolding for the anticipated name removal.
Carolina Clarence, a former kindergarten teacher who lives nearby, comes by in the afternoons and evenings with her dog Rufino.
“We’re going to see this situation subside,” she said. Trump said it was “ridiculous” to release his name. “He has suffered a lot of hurt. … A lot of donations have stopped, some performances have been canceled. They’re going to destroy the Kennedy Center.”
Katrina Clark, a local artist and actor, held a placard with a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “The play is the point, where I capture the king’s conscience.” She said she once worked at the Kennedy Center.
“This is my artistic home,” she said, noting that adding Trump’s name to the monument to slain President John F. Kennedy was “morally and ethically wrong.” She said her friends at the center have been fired, furloughed and treated as union violations. She sees in them “an active sadness.” Removing Trump’s name is “a step of hope,” she said. And she said the trial shows “something is working in our democracy.”
Trump’s lawyers have petitioned the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend a lower court judge’s order to remove the president’s name from the building. The application came after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Trump’s name was added illegally and must be removed.
Mr. Cooper has canceled repeated efforts to keep Mr. Trump’s name on the building. The latest remarks came early Friday as Trump rejected a June 11 motion by his lawyers in court to suspend the removal.
Trump’s promise that his name would be removed drew crowds to the area in hopes of seeing the judge’s order carried out. Trump’s name remained on the building as of Friday evening. However, scaffolding has been erected that appears to be assisting workers in removing Trump’s name.
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment.
The judge’s ruling drew crowds to the Kennedy Center.
Crowds gathered at the Kennedy Center on Friday afternoon in hopes of seeing President Trump’s name removed from the building in the wake of the Cooper decision. Several media outlets, including MS Now, the Associated Press, and a group called Hands Off the Arts, livestreamed on their YouTube channels footage of workers climbing scaffolding along the building’s exterior, where Trump’s name appears above Kennedy’s.
The workers left the scaffold around 4 p.m. Eastern time as some lifeguards held up umbrellas.
The judge’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a member of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors.
President Trump began implementing the Kennedy Center’s vision last year.
President Trump began enacting his vision for the world-renowned arts center in February 2025, when he abruptly fired the board, replaced board members with political allies, and appointed himself the new board chair.
To keep the venue from being “woke,” he canceled several scheduled performances and set aside $257 million in federal funds for renovations he said were badly needed.
The newly appointed board of directors voted in December to change the name of the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center, and officials appear to have installed new signage on the building less than 24 hours after the decision, which President Trump called “unanimous.”
This is a developing story. This story has been updated with new information.
Contributors: Michael Loria, Mike Snider, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY. and Reuters.
Gabe Hauari is USA TODAY’s national trends news reporter. You can follow him at X @gabehauari Or email Gdhauari@usatodayco.com.
