In a court filing Friday, the Trump administration said the removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had been delayed by bad weather, citing potential safety risks for workers. Officials said they expected the job to be finished early Saturday.
Crews removed Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center early Saturday, less than six months after it was installed. The move complied with a judge’s ruling that the famed performing arts venue cannot be renamed without approval from Congress.
The work started at about 1:20 a.m., several hours after the Justice Department acknowledged it would miss the court-ordered deadline of 11:59 p.m. Friday to take Trump’s name off the Washington institution, which was established more than 50 years ago to honor an assassinated president.
In December, the center’s board — chaired by Trump — voted to rename the venue The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Workers began placing Trump’s name on the building the following day.
REMOVAL FOLLOWS MISSED DEADLINE, COURT FILINGS
After scaffolding went up late Friday, crews covered the structure with tarps before dawn and were seen taking down the letters at around 3:10 a.m. The removal operation lasted roughly 30 minutes.
Late on Friday, the DOJ had said in a court filing it would miss the deadline because of thunderstorms that could pose safety risks for the workers, seeking a 12-hour extension.
Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who brought the lawsuit that forced Trump’s name to be removed, called the request to extend the two-week-old deadline “inexcusable” and part of “a pattern of non-compliance,” according to the DOJ filing.
The center opened in 1971 as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat assassinated in 1963. Trump, a Republican, has packed its board of trustees with allies since resuming office last year.
Hours before the DOJ filing, a federal judge in Washington had declined the department’s request to pause an order to remove Trump’s name.
US District Judge Christopher Cooper said he would not lift the order while a federal appeals court considers his ruling that only Congress could rename the venue.
The administration appealed that order to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which also rejected the government’s request for a pause on Friday.
The White House and the Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cooper ruled on May 29 that only Congress could rename the arts center. His order had required Trump’s name to be removed from the building’s facade, its website and other materials.
In urging the appeals court to pause the order, the DOJ said: “It does not make sense to alter the Center’s name and signage now, only to potentially revert the name again after what should be a successful appeal.”
Trump in February announced a two-year closure of the center for a major renovation.
He has made a broader push to reshape Washington’s monumental core, including plans for a 250-foot arch and a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the site of the East Wing of the White House, which Trump had demolished in October.
