Before dawn in Washington, workers quietly began peeling US President Donald Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center — a swift reversal less than six months after the letters were installed and a direct response to a federal judge’s ruling that the landmark’s name cannot be changed without Congress.
The work got underway around 1.20am local time, only hours after the Department of Justice acknowledged it would miss a court-ordered deadline to remove Mr Trump’s name from the venue created a half-century ago to honour John F Kennedy.
In December, the centre’s board — chaired by Mr Trump — voted to rename the institution The Donald J Trump and The John F . Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Workers began affixing his name to the building the next day.
A judge ruled only an act of Congress could authorise the name change
After scaffolding went up late yesterday, crews covered the temporary structure with tarps in the predawn hours and were seen taking down letters at about 3.10am in an effort that lasted roughly 30 minutes.
Late yesterday, the DOJ told the court it would not meet the deadline because thunderstorms could create safety hazards for workers, and asked for a 12-hour extension.
Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio — who filed the lawsuit that ultimately required Mr Trump’s name to come down — called the bid to extend the two-week-old deadline “inexcusable” and part of “a pattern of non-compliance,” according to the DOJ filing.
Hours before the DOJ filing, a federal judge in Washington had declined the department’s request to pause an order to remove Mr Trump’s name.
Protesters gathered outside the building as Donald Trump’s name was removed
US District Judge Christopher Cooper, in a ruling last month, ordered that Mr Trump’s name be removed from the prominent Washington building by Friday.
In his 29 May ruling, Mr Cooper said the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had been unlawfully renamed for Mr Trump and that only Congress has authority to alter the institution’s name.
He gave the administration 14 days to strip Mr Trump’s name from the marble facade and from any materials associated with the venue.
The Kennedy Center removed Mr Trump’s name from its website earlier this week.
Mr Cooper rejected a last-minute appeal yesterday from the venue’s board seeking to stay his decision, after which the Kennedy Center asked for a 12-hour extension to take down the signage.
The judge denied that request as well, writing that the public interest “is rarely served by the ‘perpetuation’ of ‘unlawful’ governmental action”.
Mr Cooper has also issued a temporary block on Mr Trump’s demand to close the Kennedy Center for two years of renovations, which was due to start in July.
President Trump responded by saying he was relinquishing control of the venue, which he took over at the start of his second term last year by installing himself as chair.
Mr Trump in February announced a two-year closure of the centre for a major renovation.
He has pursued a wider effort to remake Washington’s monumental core, including plans for 75m arch and a 8,400sq.m ballroom on the site of the East Wing of the White House, which he had demolished in October.
The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 as a memorial to Democrat president John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
Mr Trump, a Republican, has filled its board of trustees with allies since returning to office last year.
The center’s governing board, which Mr Trump stacked with loyalists, voted to rename the venue the ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ in December and the Republican president’s full name was added to the facade in large, all-capital letters above that of Kennedy.
A number of artists canceled scheduled performances following the move.
The now-defunct US Institute of Peace was renamed after Mr Trump, and his face stares down from huge banners outside the Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture.
The Trump administration is also seeking to have his image on a $250 bill to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence from Britain.
