Crews begin removing Trump’s name from Kennedy Center after missing Friday night deadline

(CNN) — Workers began removing President Donald Trump’s name from an exterior wall of the Kennedy Center early Saturday morning, video from a CNN crew showed.

It comes after the historic performing arts venue missed a deadline to comply with a federal judge’s ruling to remove Trump’s name from the building and asked for for additional time to carry out the directive.

Justice department attorneys representing the center said late Friday that while work was ongoing, thunderstorms in the Washington area caused delays. They said crews expected to fully remove Trump’s name “in the early hours” of Saturday.

US District Judge Casey Cooper had set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Friday for the center to certify compliance with his order. The judge hasn’t yet responded to the center’s request for additional time to say that it has carried out his demand.

Crews began assembling scaffolding underneath the exterior signage of the building Friday. Shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday, workers started to drape a covering around the scaffolding, essentially blocking the view of their progress, as people in a crowd below chanted, “Shame!”

A little after 3 a.m., crews appeared to be removing the letters, video shot through a small opening in the scaffolding covering showed.

Earlier Friday, an appeals court kept intact a federal judge’s ruling requiring the Kennedy Center to remove the president’s name from its building by the end of Friday, rejecting a last-minute effort by the center to freeze the ruling while more court proceedings play out.

The appeals court did not explain its reasoning for its decision in a brief, unsigned ruling. The panel included Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee; Patricia Millett, an appointee of former President Barack Obama; and Robert Wilkins, also an Obama appointee.

The judges asked for more written legal arguments to be submitted later this month over the center’s bid to pause the lower-court’s ruling that said it must remove Trump’s name from its building, website, promotional materials and other areas. But even as the legal wrangling plays out in coming weeks, the center must, for now, take steps to completely comply with the judge’s directive.

The center had taken steps in recent days to reverse the change in some places but kept letters spelling “The Donald J. Trump and” on the front of its building as it sought to stave off compliance with Cooper’s ruling.

In their earlier 22-page filing to the DC Circuit, DOJ lawyers repeated many of the arguments they pushed before Cooper, including that restoring the original name of the center now may cause confusion to the public should they ultimately prevail in the legal challenge to the renaming.

But they also raised the prospect that compliance with the judge’s ruling could jeopardize private donations to the center. The department pointed to bylaws that say money must be returned to donors if Trump’s name is removed from the center’s “filings, marketing, branding, façade, or any other affiliated location.”

“All of this money, hundreds of millions of dollars, will have to be immediately returned, or not received by the Center,” the department told the appeals court.

Crowds at center chant: ‘Take it down’

Friday afternoon, with the scaffolding partially assembled, crews paused their work as severe thunderstorms rolled into the area and the freeze request was filed before the appeals court. A small crowd of protesters observed the scene throughout, shouting chants of “Take it down,” and at one point calling the workers “heroes.”

Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat who has led the legal challenge, stopped by to survey the scene and pose for a photo underneath the scaffolding. “We know we’re on the right side of justice and the law,” Beatty said to applause from protesters. “No matter what happens, we’re going to continue to fight for the Kennedy family.”

“Of course they’re going to fight us. Every bit of the way, there’s going to be a legal fight,” she added.

The signage bearing Trump’s name was installed in December after the board of trustees voted to include his name to honor the president, who has made sweeping changes to the institution’s leadership and programming. The name change drew criticism from the Kennedy family, as well as a legal challenge.

In its Thursday meeting, the board also voted to approve a resolution honoring Trump’s “profound dedication” to the arts center and establishing the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” which a Kennedy Center official told CNN would “raise additional private funds to endow the Center.” Those funds would be in addition to the $257 million allocated by Congress through Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

It’s unclear if the president will be personally involved in donating any money to his namesake fund.

This story and headline have been updated with additional details.

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