Trump's name removed from Kennedy Center after court ruling

Workers began removing US President Donald Trump's name from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts early Saturday, narrowly missing a court-ordered Friday deadline after thunderstorms delayed the work. The Justice Department told a federal judge that the removal would be completed in the early hours of Saturday. Kennedy Center executive director Matthew Floca said in a court declaration that evening thunderstorms had created safety concerns for workers. The Trump administration had asked the court for more time, saying the name removal would be finished by noon Saturday. US District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last month that the Kennedy Center board did not have the authority to add Trump's name to the institution. He said only Congress could rename the center, which opened in 1971 as a memorial to former president John F Kennedy. Cooper ordered the name removed by June 12. He also blocked the center's planned two-year closure for renovations. On Friday, Cooper denied the administration's request to pause his order while it appeals. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit also rejected an emergency request to halt the removal. The Kennedy Center's board, which Trump reshaped after taking office last year, voted in December to add the president's name to the institution. The center was rebranded as the Trump-Kennedy Center. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who sits on the center's board, sued over the name change. Her lawyers called the administration's emergency request "a frivolous stay request, filed at the eleventh hour." In its appeal, the Trump administration argued that removing the name would harm fundraising. The government said some donors gave money specifically because Trump's name was on the building. "Without the name 'Trump' on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt, but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned," the government wrote in a court filing. Several hundred people gathered outside the Kennedy Center on Friday night as workers erected scaffolding in front of the facade. The crowd chanted "take it down" as midnight approached. The center's website had already removed Trump's name from most online materials. The letters on the building's marble facade were the last to be taken down. Trump had removed Democratic-appointed members from the Kennedy Center board after returning to office and installed allies in their place. The board also voted to close the center for two years for renovations, a plan Cooper blocked in his May ruling.