Kennedy Center exterior remains covered after Trump’s name is removed
Donald Trump’s name is being removed from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. (Kevin Carter/Getty)
The Kennedy Center building remains covered as US President Donald Trump’s name is removed.
The move comes after a judge ruled the venue’s board, selected by the president, didn’t have the authority to rename the performing arts centre.
To comply with the court order, all references to Donald Trump, both inside and outside the building and online, have been removed, Sky News reported.
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural centre of the US. In December of last year, the Kennedy Center board “voted unanimously” to rename the institution the Trump-Kennedy Center.
The judge ruled the president’s name must be removed by 12 June. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” US District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote on 29 May.
Judge Cooper also issued a temporary block on Trump’s demand the Kennedy Center’s closure for two years of renovations. Furthermore, the judge called those plans an “ill-informed and seemingly preordained decision.”
‘Only Congress can change it’
The venue attempted to block the ruling. Their argument centred on the idea that the removal of Trump’s name would result in having to return millions of dollars raised for renovations.
The filing said the “reason for this clause is that people and companies, who have given, or will be giving, millions of dollars to the Center were only willing to do so with the name Trump on the Building.”
However, the judge denied the request hours before the deadline to remove Trump’s name.
On Saturday (13 June), construction workers began removing the President’s name from the Kennedy Center’s facade. Over the weekend, the metal letters spelling Trump’s name were covered, preventing visitors from seeing it.
In December, many protested the renaming to include Trump. This included President Kennedy’s grandnephew, former congressman Joe Kennedy III.
He stated the center “is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law”. He added: “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”
At the time, Democrat Representative Joyce Beatty also spoke out against the decision. She also claimed that on the voting call, she was muted and unable to vote against the renaming.
“I was not allowed to vote because I was muted,” the Democratic congresswoman told ABC News. “I would not have supported this.”
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