A Week After Court-Ordered Name Removal, Tarps Still Hide Kennedy Center Facade

More than a week after a federal court ordered President Trump’s name stripped from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, no one outside the building can confirm it’s actually gone.Giant tarps have draped the front of the venue since June 13, when crews moved in overnight to comply with the order requiring Mr. Trump’s name be removed from the marble facade. The continuing cover-up has fueled fresh conspiracy theories and accusations surrounding the president’s contested takeover of America’s premier performing arts venue.Kennedy Center officials insist there’s no mystery. According to a statement from a spokesman, the scaffolding and tarp will stay up while crews address maintenance needs involving the marble and soffit panels — though officials have not explained why the tarp was needed in the first place.Critics aren’t buying it and have also been taking the opportunity to take some shots at the president.“A literal coverup, to add to all the others,” Congressman Jamie Raskin wrote on X. “Nobody’s fooled. Trump and his team got caught vandalizing federal property by posting graffiti with his name on the Kennedy Center, and a judge shut them down. It will be a beautiful day when the name of the Kennedy Center is restored to visibility. And the vandal should pay for all the repair work — not the taxpayers,” the Maryland Democrat wrote.Representative Mike Levin, Democrat of California, piled on, calling the removal of Mr. Trump’s name “a huge win.”“You’d think that would be the end of it. But now they’re hiding the sign that says ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ behind a tarp, with no plans to take it down. Rather than simply let the Kennedy Center be the Kennedy Center, they’re literally covering up its name. How vain can one man be? It’s petty. It’s absurd. And frankly, it’s embarrassing,” he wrote on X.The standoff traces back to February 2025, when Mr. Trump seized control of the Kennedy Center’s board and installed loyalists who later voted to rename the institution in his honor. The move triggered boycotts from performers, donors, and audiences, with several high-profile artists publicly distancing themselves from the center.In late May, a U.S. district judge, Christopher R. Cooper, ordered Mr. Trump’s name removed from the building along with all official branding by June 12, ruling that the change violated the center’s congressional charter. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Judge Cooper wrote.Mr. Trump erupted online. “The Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center,” he wrote on Truth Social. His allies made a last-minute, unsuccessful bid to block the removal before the deadline expired. By the night of June 12, hundreds of spectators had gathered on the plaza, hoping to watch the sign come down. Instead, workers arrived around 2 a.m. and covered the facade with tarps, drawing shouts of “Don’t do it!” A few news photographers later captured evidence that some letters had come off, but the tarps were soon adjusted, blocking the view.The dispute escalated again Friday, when a status report on the center’s future was filed in court hours before a deadline. The center said it intends to stay open past its planned July 5 closure date and is compiling options — including a possible full closure — for a board vote in mid-July.At Friday’s weekly “Hands Off The Arts” protest, demonstrators chanted “Take down the tarp!” Forrest Robinette, a former volunteer tour guide, didn’t mince words.“Of course, we can’t actually see that it’s down right now because there’s a big cowardly tarp up there that they’re trying to hide this from the world and from the nation because it’s a national embarrassment,” he told WUSA-9.

A Week After Court-Ordered Name Removal, Tarps Still Hide Kennedy Center Facade

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