Donald Trump’s name was stripped from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC early on Saturday, less than six months after it was affixed to the facade of the building.
Complying with a judge’s ruling that the performing arts landmark cannot be renamed without an act of Congress, work began to remove the name 1.20am local time (5.20am GMT), hours after the US Department of Justice said the US Government would miss the court-ordered deadline of 11.59pm on Friday to remove Trump’s name from the Washington venue.
Department of Justice lawyers had sought to have the removal order paused, but a judge in Washington declined the request.
Last month, Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled the centre’s board could not vote to have Trump’s name attached.
Workers on scaffolding took down the US President’s name from the building’s facade early on Saturday (Photo: Alex Wroblewski/AFP)
“The ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ label adds an entirely new name to the center’s formal title,” Judge Cooper wrote, “and relegates President Kennedy’s name to second place”.
The administration launched an emergency appeal, which the appeals court also rejected.
The cultural hub was created a half-century ago and designated as a living memorial to Kennedy by an Act of Congress signed into law two months after his assassination.
Onlookers gathered to watch workers in hard hats and yellow vests removing Trump’s name (Photo: Rahmat Gul/AP)
Trump installed his supporters on the board after he took over as chair in February last year.
Board members voted unanimously to rename the venue The Donald J. Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on 18 December. Workers began affixing his name to the building the following day.
Now, the day before his 80th birthday, his attempt to leave his visible mark on the outside of the building has been thwarted.
The centre’s board, which Trump chairs, voted unanimously to rename it The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December (Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Getty)
Trump’s name has also been dropped from the centre’s website.
Democrat and US Representative for Ohio’s 3rd congressional district, Joyce Beatty, 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 Department of Justice filing.
Speaking outside the centre prior to the removal of Trump’s name, Beatty said: “We were on the side of justice. And one of the things we’ve always said, if we’re going to fight for the people, if we’re going to fight for democracy, we have to make sure that we respect the rule of law.”
US Representative Joyce Beatty, a Democrat, brought the lawsuit that forced Trump’s name to be removed from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Photo: Cliff Owen/AP)
Crowds gathered outside the building to watch workers take down Trump’s name.
Beatty, who also waited to see its removal, said it was both “humbling” and “an honour” to see people come together to witness the moment.
“It also says to me how impactful it is when people unite and stand together,” she said. “It also gives courage to people to be proud for being an American, proud to be someone that knows that there are people on the other side, people in Congress, that will stand with the people and not be afraid or influenced by any part of government that’s doing anything unlawful.”
Beatty said it was ‘an honour’ to see people come together to witness the moment of Trump’s name being taken down (Photo: Rahmat Gul/AP)
This comes ahead of a mid-term election where Trump is expected to perform poorly with his popularity rating, according to a tracker from the Economist, falling to -25 points as of 7 June, 15 points lower than the same period in his first term.
The majority of the poor rating has been sparked by the Iran war, with Republicans warning the conflict must be resolved before September.
“By the first of September … it needs to be resolved,” Dan Naylor, chairman of the Republican party in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, told Politico. “You get more focused on the election at that point in time, and we need to be able to point to falling prices.”